La Strada Documentation Center

The rapprochement of ILO standards and CSR mechanisms: towards a positive understanding of ‘privatization’

Document number
3077
Date
2013
Title
The rapprochement of ILO standards and CSR mechanisms: towards a positive understanding of ‘privatization’
Author/publisher
Ruben Zandvliet and Paul van der Heijden
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Research/Study/Analysis,
Keywords
ILO, international, Labour, organisation, privatization, CSR, corporate, social, responsibility
Summary

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relevance of international labour law in the context of corporate social responsibility. Alston’s trinity of ‘defining, promoting and enforcing’ implies that a plethora of (procedural) promotion and enforcement mechanisms leads to a plethora of (normatively convenient) interpretations and definitions. Our central research question is thus: To what extent do ILO standards mitigate self-definition and interpretation in CSR? Part 2 first looks at the normative development of labour standards within the ILO. It subsequently examines the convenience-hypothesis within other fields of international law that have appropriated labour standards. Part 3 deals with the relationship between international labour law and CSR. Part 4 turns to the perceived dichotomy between CSR and enforcement. Part 5 concludes.