Marianne Carmel B.

Agunoy
3C
Evolving Norms in Business and Human Rights

Topic: Business Responsibilities in Humanitarian Conflicts

Justification for the topic:

The humanitarian disasters and the displacements caused by it are rising at shocking level.
These conflicts have caused dwindling food provisions, lack of medical assistance, disease,
psychological damage, lack of education, and amplified vulnerability to name a few. In 2015, UNs
humanitarian agencies were reported to be on the verge of bankruptcy and unable to meet the
basic needs of millions of people because of the size of the refugee crisis in the Middle East, Africa
and Europe.1 But while humanitarian aid is declining, opportunities for the global community,
especially the private sector and businesses, to come together are rising. With this, the questions
that I would like to answer through this paper are can corporate social responsibility make a
difference? What are the business responsibilities of an enterprise in times of conflicts and
subsequently, is there a business obligation to aid refugees?

1 Harriet Grant, UN agencies 'broke and failing' in face of ever-growing refugee crisis, The
Guardian, Sept.6, 2015 available at
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/06/refugee-crisis-un-agencies-broke-failing
(last accessed: May 18, 2017).