HOW AN ENERGY COMPANY TAKES A HUMAN RIGHTS APPROACH

摘要

As National Grid's in-house counsel for nearly 30 years, I handle the company's U.S. litigation portfolio, manage its U.S. business ethics and compliance program, and more recently, play an active role on its international human rights team. This article discusses the intersection of business, human rights, and conflict prevention and resolution. Not too long ago, it was unusual to see "business" and "human rights" used in the same sentence. Not anymore. Now, many companies are beginning to recognize that they have a responsibility to protect and promote human rights. This emerging realization has been driven by many factors: awareness that human rights abuses have occurred in the wake of a globalized economy; the rise of socially responsible investment funds; and the increasing willingness of public pension funds, such as Calpers, the New York Public Pension Fund, and the Government Pension Fund of Norway, to use their leverage to address human rights issues. The drivers also include changing legal requirements, such as the new "ethical culture" requirement of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines for Organizational Defendants, and the U.K. Companies Act of 2006 requirement that companies take into account their actions' impact on affected stakeholders beyond shareholders. Litigation against companies for complicity in human rights violations committed by state security forces also has played a factor in increased corporate human rights responsibilities.