The adoption of the Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights by the United Nations (UNGPs) in 2011 created a new governance instrument aimed at improving the promotion of human rights by business enterprises. While reaffirming states duties to uphold human rights in law, the UNGPs called on firms to promote the realization of human rights within global markets. The UNGPs thus have sought to embed human rights more firmly within the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to use CSR practices to improve corporate human rights accountability. In this paper, we explore how this incorporation of human rights into the CSR field has affected the business practices and public commitments British firms have made to promote human rights. We analyse the CSR reports published by the 50 largest British firms over a 20-year period starting in the late 1990s and interview senior CSR managers of these firms. We find that these firms have expanded how they articulate their responsibility for human rights over time. These commitments however remain largely focused on improving management practices such as due diligence and remediation procedures. Firms are often both vague and selective about which substantive human rights they engage with in light of their concerns about their market competitiveness and broader legitimacy. These outcomes suggest that, while firms cannot completely resist the normative pressures exerted by the CSR field, they retain significant resources and agency in translating such pressure into concrete practices.

联合国（UNGPs）在2011年通过了《企业与人权指导原则》，创建了一项新的治理工具，旨在改善企业对人权的促进​​。在重申各国有义务维护法律上的人权的同时，联合国全球契约小组呼吁公司在全球市场上促进人权的实现。因此，UNGP试图将人权更牢固地纳入公司社会责任（CSR）领域，并利用CSR做法来改善公司人权问责制。在本文中，我们探讨了将人权纳入企业社会责任领域如何影响英国公司为促进人权所做的商业行为和公共承诺。我们分析了从1990年代末开始的20年间英国50家最大的公司发布的CSR报告，并采访了这些公司的高级CSR经理。我们发现，随着时间的流逝，这些公司扩大了其表达人权责任的方式。但是，这些承诺仍然主要集中在改善管理实践上，例如尽职调​​查和补救程序。考虑到他们对市场竞争力和更广泛的合法性的关注，企业通常对使用哪种实质性人权既含糊又选择性。这些结果表明，尽管企业无法完全抵制CSR领域施加的规范压力，但它们仍保留了大量资源和代理，可以将这种压力转化为具体实践。