The Peace Trap: Corporate Behavior and Human Rights

How does domestic corporate behavior affect government protections of human rights? Using data on large corporate participation in the UN Global Compact, positive and negative corporate behavior (Melin 2021), and national latent human rights scores from Farriss et al. (2019) and Cingranelli et al. (2023), we examine the effects of corporate behavior on the protection of various human rights by the host state. Our findings will shed light on the opportunity for domestic corporations to affect the protection of human rights and will deepen the existing links of study between human rights attainment and the activity of the private sector.