ABSTRACT
During the latter half of the twentieth century, international human rights became the dominant form of moral and legal discourse. However, at the beginning of the twenty-fi rst century, there is increasing emphasis on the notion that individuals and organizations also have certain social responsibilities with respect to human rights for which they may be held accountable. Governments have traditionally been viewed as the primary bearers of the moral and legal responsibilities entailed by human rights, and continue to be so regarded. However, the new discourse of social responsibility for human rights modifi es the state-centric approach by proposing that many kinds of private non-state actors, such as multinational corporations, intergovernmental institutions, and even individuals and civil society organizations, also have responsibilities for observing, promoting, and fulfi lling human rights. The concept of social responsibility should be understood as encompassing more than just duties related to human rights, and is often invoked as a way of describing duties to protect environment quality, prevent unnecessary harm to animals, and promote other important social goods. However, the present discussion will be restricted to those kinds of social responsibilities that are derived from or are related to human rights, an important subclass of the wider concept.
