In addition to the UN Guiding Principles on BHR, there are several other international soft-law standards and initiatives that shape the BHR landscape. This chapter introduces three more general international standards, namely the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the UN Global Compact and the ISO 26000 standard. All feature a strong human rights component. They are important because of the impact they have had in shaping the human rights practices of business and the BHR field more generally. For each of the three standards, their human rights-related content is outlined, followed by some reflections on how the standards are enforced and a summary of major criticism they have faced. In the context of the OECD Guidelines, the chapter will address the role and potential of the so-called National Contact Points as possible remedy mechanisms in human rights disputes. In addition, the last subchapter of this section takes a more general look at the role and significance of multistakeholder initiatives, which have become an important element of the larger governance landscape in BHR.

Transnational regulation of corporate behaviour is characterized by a multiplicity of reflexive norm-making processes in a variety of different forums, creating a web of corporate social responsibility (CSR) normativity in which relationing, cross-referencing but also contestation between bodies of norms become the rule rather than the exception. These interactions are particularly visible within a subset of CSR norms described as meta-regulatory, which often serve as focal points for entanglement. The chapter focuses on one such instrument – the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The structure of the guidelines facilitates coordinated entanglement by including strategic openings and references to external bodies of norms. Moreover, the existence of OECD National Contact Points (the guidelines’ implementation mechanism) also enables more fluid and contingent interactions between bodies of norms, described in the chapter as ad hoc entanglement. By analysing both coordinated and ad hoc entanglement in relation to the OECD guidelines, the chapter identifies some of the dynamics which characterise the interactions between bodies of CSR norms. The resulting picture is nuanced, with entanglement being present in varying shades ranging from distancing to proximity.

This chapter introduces the reader to the various guiding frameworks for responsible business conduct and how they relate to labor practices and labor rights within and across countries and cultures. The authors explain how and why the global community has found it necessary to address these issues as part of the movement to steer national and transnational corporations to uphold human rights and contribute to social development around the world. Key international instruments are introduced and discussed, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) guidelines, the UN Guidelines on Business and Human Rights, and the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprise and Social Policy. An example is given that provides a concrete example of how the OECD guidelines are applied to a case of reported human rights abuse. The authors capture the significant components of the OECD RBC and associated guidelines from both social and organizational psychology perspectives and show how psychological knowledge and competence can strengthen the application of these international instruments for the protection of human rights and labor rights.