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Esther Bares, a research assistant for UNI Post & Logistics Global Union, takes a specific look at how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs can be used to promote human rights and development in countries where multinationals operate.



She submitted the report as her thesis for the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Corporate Social Responsibility at the University of Geneva.



Bares found that by focusing on human rights in their CSR programs companies could help improve the lives of all people in developing economies.



“This paper only looked at whether a rights-based approach could be integrated into a CSR strategy and what value it would bring to CSR in development,” Bares says in her conclusion. “This falls short of any concrete example or case study though and it would be interesting to pursue this in the future.”



She says that development and economic or business goals have been quite opposite over the past 60 years.

However, new ways can be found to align the alleviation of global poverty with corporate interests. Integrating a rights-based approach to CSR policies and programmes is one of them; that would provide for true economic development and for economic development that would benefit the world’s workers too.



Click on related files to read Bares’ full report.