Kuriukin A.N. Human rights in the new socio-economic reality of Industry 4.0. In: Ensuring human rights and the exercise of public authority in modern conditions: problems and solutions: Monograph ...

Abstract

Collaborative intelligent manufacturing in Industry 4.0 represents a significant shift in the traditional manufacturing paradigm. Vertical and horizontal integration of supply chain actors creates new business relationships with new potential adverse human rights implications. There is no doubt that businesses have a corporate responsibility to respect human rights. The primary tool for fulfilling this responsibility is human rights due diligence, which is based on the idea that a business enterprise can prevent or mitigate human rights impacts when starting a new business relationship or activity. This assumption, however, is challenged by the technological and organizational processes of Industry 4.0, which are based on complex real-time network interactions and autonomous data-driven decision making. In this new collaborative environment, the manufacturer becomes one of many network participants along with the buyer. This leads to new potential cumulative adverse human rights impacts at the ecosystem level that cannot be sufficiently addressed by a single actor. This article proposes an outline for a four-pillar system of participatory human rights due diligence, combining elements of the three pillars of the Guiding Principles. This is an invitation to scholarly debate on the need for hybrid approaches to human rights due diligence in Industry 4.0. Taking a hybrid approach to human rights due diligence, the framework aims to encourage manufacturing supply chain participants in certain industries, such as aerospace, to join their due diligence efforts. By sharing costs and benefits, such a structure can have long-term side effects by encouraging businesses to collaborate on services as well.