Horizontal Embeddedness, Business, and Human Rights: Fostering the Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights within the ASEAN Community

Abstract

This chapter considers regional integration in one of the most contested areas of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Member States (AMS) commitments under the ASEAN Charter – the promotion and protection of human rights – as it relates to one of AMS’ most significant constituencies – the business community. In this context, ASEAN's approach to integration via cooperation and coordination at the inter-ministerial and inter-agency level – what Diane Desierto has aptly described as a system of 'horizontal embeddedness' – stands to become an important example of how the corporate responsibility to respect human rights can be integrated into the regulation of the private sector in Asia. The historic establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015 brings with it an opportunity to strengthen corporate social responsibility in ASEAN, and in particular, to concretize the corporate responsibility to respect human rights within the ASEAN business community