Birchall David, Bernaz Nadia
London South Bank University, London, UK.
Wageningen University Law Group, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Hum Rights Rev. 2023;24(1):1-23. doi: 10.1007/s12142-023-00680-w. Epub 2023 Mar 23.
In this article, we apply the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to the private equity (PE) business model. PE firms often adopt a controversial, 'value extractive', business model based on high debt and extreme cost-cutting to generate investor returns. PE firms own large numbers of companies, including in many rights-related sectors. The model is linked to increased human rights risks to workers, housing tenants, and in privatized health and social care. We map these risks and analyse the human rights responsibilities of PE firms. Our analysis has major implications for understandings of human rights responsibility. We argue that value extractive methods are the root cause of eventual harm to human rights, even though they may not harm rights directly. To respect human rights, PE firms must mitigate the risks of these value extractive methods. We define how human rights due diligence (HRDD) could achieve this and argue that given the extent of harm and the lack of a business case for adopting such a view of human rights responsibility, business strategy level HRDD should be a core component of forthcoming HRDD laws.
在本文中，我们将联合国商业和人权指导原则应用于私募股权（PE）商业模式。私募股权公司通常采用一种有争议的“价值提取型”商业模式，该模式基于高负债和极端成本削减来为投资者创造回报。私募股权公司拥有大量公司，包括许多与权利相关的行业。这种模式与工人、住房租户以及私有化医疗和社会护理领域中人权风险的增加有关。我们梳理了这些风险，并分析了私募股权公司的人权责任。我们的分析对人权责任的理解具有重大意义。我们认为，价值提取方法是最终损害人权的根本原因，尽管它们可能不会直接损害权利。为了尊重人权，私募股权公司必须减轻这些价值提取方法带来的风险。我们定义了人权尽职调查（HRDD）如何能够实现这一点，并认为鉴于损害的程度以及采纳这种人权责任观缺乏商业理由，企业战略层面的人权尽职调查应该成为即将出台的人权尽职调查法律的核心组成部分。
