Do the United Nations' Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights Require a Fourth Pillar to Better Respect Human Rights? Contrasting Karp's 'Disembedded Liberalism' Thesis and Human Rights Due Diligence

Abstract

The UNGPs' three-pillar framework has received several critiques, notably concerning whether it is sufficient to combat human rights abuses. As a result, critics have proposed their own frameworks, aimed at addressing what they believe is missing from the UNGPs' framework. David Karp proposes one significant reform, introducing a pillar based on the idea of 'disembedded liberalism', focused on 'a collective political responsibility to challenge and change our current world order'. Such a reform could help enhance the UNGPs' effectiveness in combating human rights abuses, an area in which the UNGPs arguably fall short in contemporary society.