'Naming and Shaming' Matters: Human Rights, Metal and Mining Companies

Together with the petroleum and gas industries, the mining sector is accused of committing two thirds of all human rights abuses by a report of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights. The metal industry had controversies on human rights too. Hence, public pressure on these industries to become more socially responsible increased. Are metal and mining companies responsive to these public claims? I criticize previous research on corporate social responsibility for being too broad to account for corporate human rights commitment whereas findings from descriptive articles as well as case studies on the corporate reporting of human rights cannot be generalized. Contributing the first quantitative study on the role of public pressure for a corporate human rights policy, I argue that national standards, corporate guidelines and the dissemination of information on human rights abuses encourages metal and mining businesses to express their commitment to human rights. The key findings show that both “carrots” and “sticks” determine the adoption of a human rights policy as well as a high commitment to it by metal and mining businesses. Importantly, my results also show that no corporate factor enhances the chance of corporate reporting on human rights.