Making The Case For Business Action To "Secure The Shared Space"

The relationship between companies and civil society can often be acrimonious, yet in the current geopolitical environment, they share more interests in common than one might think. This is the key insight that underpins new guidance authored by Bennett Freeman and others for the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre and two partner organizations on the role that companies should play in protecting the "shared space" they occupy with civil society.

This "shared space," which is defined by the rule of law and respect for human rights—especially for the freedoms of expression, association that are so crucial to good governance—is now under threat from a rising tide of authoritarianism and lawlessness as never before in the post-Cold War era. Businesses and civil society actors (ranging from NGOs to human rights defenders) operate in this "shared space," and the shared benefits of securing it give rise to a business case for doing so. Specifically, businesses have