The Role of Non-State Actors in Business and Human Rights Norm Diffusion in Southeast Asia

The United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) has been adopted by the members of the United Nations since June 2011, however, there remains challenges in its implementation, especially in the Southeast Asia region. Since its adoption, Thailand is the only country in the region that has published the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAPBHR). Meanwhile, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam are still in the process of developing the NAPBHR within their own countries. The Philippines and Myanmar are also developing non-state initiatives in implementing the UNGPs. Therefore, only six, out of the eleven member states of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) that are embracing the UNGPs, and only Thailand has the NAPBHR. This slow progress in the implementation of the UNGPs leads to question the process of the Business and Human Rights’ norm diffusion in Southeast Asia. According to Sikkink, norm diffusion is the conditions in which the transnational advocacy networks transfer the principled ideas and international norms, in order to bring change to the domestic institutions. This theory explains how non-state actors, namely international organizations and civil society organizations, can give pressure to influence human rights change within a State. Traditionally, the human rights spiral model analyzes the roles of non-state actors, which includes international organizations (IOs) and civil society organizations (CSOs). The non-state actors usually use the “naming and shaming” tactics to pressure human rights change within a country. However, the UNGPs adds a new actor to the human rights regime, which is the private sector. The UNGPs also introduced the “knowing and showing” paradigm to be implemented by the private sector. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the roles of the private sector in the human rights spiral model, in order to explain the business and human rights’ norm diffusion in Southeast Asia.