On 27th and 28th of June 2013, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS) in collaboration with the Norwegian Center for Human Rights, University of Oslo, held a conference on “Business and Human Rights”.
The conference was part of a series of activities run under the “Forum for Human Rights Education” project carried out by both institutions. The project has attracted the attention and participation of many scholars and scientists from countries around the world, for example Azerbaijan, United States, Canada, England, France, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Norway, and South Africa, as well as representatives of policy planning offices, social organizations, businesses, universities and research institutions in Vietnam. Prof.Dr. Nguyen Khanh Vinh, Vice President of VASS, and Prof.Dr. Bard-Anders Andreassen, Director of the Norwegian Center for Human Rights, University of Oslo, co-chaired the conference.
At the opening session, Prof. Vinh pointed out that recently VASS and the Norwegian Center for Human Rights had been working closely together studying the social responsibilities of business and human rights, and had successfully organized a number of workshops/conferences on the issue of human rights in Vietnam. This conference was a continuation of the project activities concerning that research topic. It was a fact, Prof. Vinh said, that human rights had become aconsiderable important issue in many countries, especially in Vietnam – a country in the process of moving towards international integration – and therefore ensuring respect for human rights in relation to business dealings was an important factor in the establishment of a legally constituted state of the people, by the people, and for the people.
The Vice President of VASS expected to hear scholars and scientists extensively discuss these issues, not only in terms of analytical orientations, lessons learnt, or practical and theoretical exchanges between research institutions, but also in regard to actual relationships between business and human rights in specific countries, going into detail and positively influencing businesses through discussions between businesses and related social organizations aimed at raising people’s awareness and expanding their involvement in implementing specific obligations and responsibilities of businesses towards their workers.
To affirm this spirit, in the plenary session, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Nhu Phat, Director-General of Institute of State and Law (VASS), opened with a presentation entitled “The Corporate Social Responsibility: Some Theoretical Issues”, in which he observed that the term corporate social responsibility (CSR) had first officially appeared 50 years ago for the purpose of propaganda in calls upon property managers not to violate tenants’ rights and upon charitable business people to compensate the social damages caused by their business. Since then discussions have usually split in two ways: either opposing or supporting the advocacy of social responsibility, specifically focusing on business’s human rights-related responsibilities. Today CSR has become an important issue facing humanity in modern economic life. As part of that movement, the term CSR has been introduced to, actively discussed, and applied in many businesses in Vietnam. However, the facts show that many issues still need to be further studied, discussed, and verified in order to make CSR a concept and a principle that cannot be ignored by any business.
The conference was divided into three sections: a section on general issues; a section on the experiences of different countries, for example Indonesia, India, Myanmar, and other Asian and African countries; and a section on the social responsibilities of business in relation to human rights in Vietnam. At the conference, 23 papers with multi-dimensional approaches were presented by scholars, scientists and practitioners. With more than 100 questions raised by participants over the two days, the conference proved that the issues of business and human rights are a hot field of study bearing deep meaning for humanity.
In his speech at the close of the conference, Prof.Dr. Vo Khanh Vinh expressed gratitude attitude for the obtained results and concluded that the research topic of business and human rights was new to Vietnam but was already receiving great interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary scholarly interest as well as increasing attention from society and the mass media. The conference discussions showed that both the current situation of business and human rights, and the challenges faced by businesses are complex issues of importance not only to business but also to the State, social agencies, and anyone interested. Above all, however, the conference showed that when violations causing harm to workers occur, businesses with CRS knowledge have made efforts to protect the workers, giving them respect and doing everything possible to protect their legitimate rights and interests. This is a general trend that the businesses of countries implementing CSR must follow. In addition, conference participants also agreed that business for human rights was the most stable and sustainable form of business. Any business with an awareness of CSR and related organizational and operating procedures would achieve good results. The conference had come to the conclusion that business for human rights was a human rights issue, and that to properly address this issue the collective efforts of diverse social organizations were necessary, in business, civil society, the communications sector, the legislature and the executive. And there must be training at different levels. In Vietnam, in the near future, this research subject and area of study will be taught at the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences in a course for MSc. Code for Human Rights and other short training programs for businessmen, managers and policy makers.
Pham Vinh Ha
