The Legal Aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility: Interview with Ursula Wynhoven

AuthorBenjamin Thompson, Erica Teeuwen, Ilina Georgieva
PositionUtrecht University, the Netherlands
Pages139-144
Benjamin Thompson and Erica Teeuwen and Ilina Georgieva, ‘The Legal
Aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility: Interview with Ursula Wynhoven’
(2014) 30(78) Utrecht Journal of International and European Law 139,
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/ujiel.ch
The Global Compact (UNGC) represents the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative today. Created
under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) to encourage companies around the world to adopt sustain-
able and socially responsible policies, the UNGC brings together businesses, UN agencies and labour groups
in search of compromises.
In a phone interview with the Journal’s team, Ursula Wynhoven, General Counsel and Head of the UN
Global Compact, shared her views on current issues and challenges of the field.
Before joining the UN, she was engaged with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) on the development of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Ursula Wynhoven
has also worked as a lawyer in governmental human rights agencies and private practices in the United
Kingdom, the United States and Australia, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Reykjavik’s School
of Law in human rights and business.
1. Could you please introduce yourself and elaborate on your work at UN Global Compact?
My name is Ursula Wynhoven. I am the General Counsel of the UN Global Compact, and I’m also the Chief
of Governance and Social Sustainability. With my team, I look after our legal affairs, as well as the governance
of the initiative (including our integrity measures) regarding participation by companies and others in the
initiative. My team and I are also responsible for our work on the social dimension of corporate sustainability
– we have a number of work streams in this area. This covers human rights, labour, women’s empowerment,
children’s rights, trafficking issues and indigenous peoples rights. We work with the quadruple bottom line
concept of corporate sustainability that encompasses the economic, social, environmental and governance
dimensions.
2. Many authors believe that the inability or unwillingness of developing countries to hold multinational
corporations accountable for human rights violations is an essential problem of Corporate Social
Resp onsib ility (CSR). Different solutions have been suggested including: improving the position of devel-
oping countries to deal with these problems themselves, international treaties and the right of victims of
human rights violations to sue in home states. What do you think are the main problems with holding MNEs
accountable for human rights violations committed in developing countries and where do you think the
solutions lie?
To start more generally and get more specific, the UN Global Compact’s approach to Human Rights has
two key dimensions in terms of the call we make to companies: respect for human rights and support for
human rights. This question is about respect for human rights: to do no harm. This looks at the question of
accountability and what companies should do to ensure that they don’t cause human rights abuse, that they
don’t contribute to it and that they are mindful of how they may be linked to human rights abuse through
business relationships or their operations, products and services. The accountability dimension is still a chal-
lenge. Among other things, the available remedies are widely acknowledged not to be adequate. Hence, the
Guiding Principles on business and human rights have a lot to say about remedies, as well as what should be
done to prevent human rights abuse.
One of the biggest challenges relates to the lack of political will. Some governments around the world are
not fulfilling their duty to protect, as well as their duties to respect and fulfill human rights. This has implica-
tions for the environment in which companies operate, and also means that governments may not be hold-
ing companies accountable. Whether you’re talking within a country’s own borders or extraterritorially, you
need to have political will to put the laws in place and to also have them effectively enforced.
INTERVIEW
The Legal Aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility:
Interview with Ursula Wynhoven
Benjamin Thompson* and Erica Teeuwen* and Ilina Georgieva*
* Utrecht University, the Netherlands
ben@small-voices.net, e.m.h.teeuwen@gmail.com, ilina_georgieva@hotmail.com
UTRECHT JOURNAL OF
INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN LAW

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