Business and Human Rights

BOOKS Business and Human Rights Edited by Rory Sullivan Greenleaf Publishing, 19.95

So you stop kids in the Sialkot area of Pakistan staying at home to hand-stitch footballs (the region produces 70

Another victory for corporate social responsibility? Not necessarily. Family income drops. The work is now carried out in local factories, and mothers have to go out to earn enough for the family to survive, leaving the older kids at home (still not at school) to look after the younger. Total family income falls. Net effect; not positive - unless a number of odier actions are taken to complement the initial "good intentions".

This is only one of the case studies in this thought-provoking book, which contains a huge amount of both conceptual discussion and, more interestingly, case studies from various industries and parts of the world. It highlights that there are no easy solutions to these issues, but it provides thoughtful comment, ideas and criticism.

It is not, however, an easy read at over 300 pages of dense, small type, unrelieved by much in the way of graphics, pictures or humour! It is not a purely academic work, but each chapter has a different author or authors, so it suffers somewhat from feeling like an academic collection of papers rather than a book with a coherent, consistent message and style. Hence it will probably appeal more to people who work in this field rather than, say, a procurement professional who wants a quick overview.

It does also highlight that CIPS has a way to go before we are seen as integral or a key player in this debate, which we should be given die central role of supply chain management in this whole area. The index (very useful and much better dian in many such books) does not feature CIPS and I could find little mention of die role that our profession should be playing in the debate.

Having said that, the book goes well beyond the pure supply chain issues into areas such as how closely a multinational company should "get into bed" with a repressive regime in order to further its own company interests. As such, I could see readers widi a political, sociological or economic interest getting at least as much out of it as a procurement audience.

While this book isn't a must-read for most of us, if you're interested in the subject, it's a worthwhile and challenging one.