In the same way that the environment climbed to the top of corporate agendas during the 1990s, human rights looks likely to gain more attention this decade. Already, incidents in California, Sudan, China, and Nigeria have forced a small cadre of companies to take a close look at the issue.
More corporations are likely to follow.
But the concept of rights, especially human ones, remains fuzzy. Finding solutions to all but the most basic problems will prove more challenging than cleaning up a polluted river or capping emissions into the atmosphere. It also marks the rise of business power on the world political scene. Human rights principles were really written with governments in mind. The scrutiny is likely to intensify.