The subject covered in this Compendium has developed very fast in the last 20 years. The idea that businesses have social responsibilities is not new; it has been discussed in universities since the 1960s under the name ‘business ethics’. The notion of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) however became prominent in the 1990s as a response to criticism that economic globalization is not fair in how it spreads benefits and risks. Therefore ideas of CSR, corporate accountability, corporate citizenship, responsible business conduct and corporate sustainability, have attracted wide support, initially from civil society groups and then from some leading businesses and industry associations as well as governments and international organizations.
The compendium is meant to be an aid for lecturers to prepare classes and seminars on business and human rights in Cambodia. A secondary audience could be researchers that are new to the topics but look for authoritative reference points from which to start reading and researching human rights aspects. Expected users are teachers from five disciplines: lecturers not only from law faculties, but also from political science, business administration, sociology, and media & communications.
Radu Mares has drafted the sections containing international materials in all chapters. Cambodia-based authors, as identified in each chapter, have drafted the sections containing Cambodia-related materials. The sections containing Cambodia-related materials have benefited from internal peer review coordinated by Prof. Kenneth Paul Charman and Soy Kimsan, with contributions from Sao Socheata. An evaluation of the Compendium from a teacher perspective has also taken place during the 9th Annual Ten December Academy – Training School on Business and Human Rights organised by the RWI in December 2020. Sen Mostafa, programme officer at RWI, has organised and coordinated the entire process that lead to the development of Cambodia-related sections. Elina Hammarström, research assistant at RWI, has proofread and formatted the entire manuscript.