Chapter 4: The global regulation of supply chains and human rights: linked but fractured

Overview & Synopsis

Supply chains come with the promise to contribute to economic prosperity. At the same time, doubts over their positive effects rise. Particularly, the role and regulation of supply chains from a human rights perspective remains ambiguous. Against this background, this chapter explores the relation between the global regulation of supply chains and human rights, investigating the reasons for its ambiguity by analyzing current discussions in the issue area of business and human rights in the United Nations (UN) treaty process, which partly interconnects supply chain regulation with human rights, yet reveals the cracks in their relationship. These appear particularly within three regulatory dimensions: business power, the bindingness of regulation and the policy level of regulation. Better understanding of this linked but fractured relationship builds a basis for further developing the regulation of supply chains from a human rights perspective.