Orchestration from below? Trade unions in the global south, transnational business and efforts to orchestrate continuous improvement in non-state regulatory initiatives

This article is centrally concerned with the mechanisms and processes through which human rights in transnational business practices can be respected and remedied when breached, with a particular focus on workers’ rights in global garment supply chains. The United Nations ('UN') Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ('UNGPs') represent a high-level attempt to provide a normative framework for these issues. The UNGPs were adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, having been drafted by Professor John Ruggie and his team during Ruggie’s service as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the issue of business and human rights. Whereas most UN instruments are solely concerned with the responsibilities of nation states, the UNGPs propose that non-state, non-judicial grievance mechanisms and other private regulatory initiatives have an important role to play in augmenting and complementing state-based laws and judicial processes. The adoption of the UNGPs has thus added fuel to ongoing debates concerning the role and effectiveness of private regulatory initiatives and the relationship between such initiatives and states’ responsibility to protect human rights.