The United Nations

Equally important, in terms of an endorsement for SEAAR, in August of 2003, the United Nations issued their Draft Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights, which describes in detail the responsibilities of companies for human and labor rights. Although not binding in law, the standards are intended to be adopted by governments and then used as a basis for corporate behavior. Their sanction is at this point limited to a range of mechanisms (mostly techniques for naming and shaming through investigation and censuring companies violating human rights policies), but the norms are probably most valuable in that they incorporate best practice thinking in terms of human rights laws, standards implementation, and best practices for monitoring and coaching suppliers, and complement the U.N. s Global Compact by adding important new levels of detail.