Corporate Citizenship & Refugee Inclusion: Harnessing Global Private Regulation and Corporate Social Responsibility

Lawrence L. Herman

Appel á l’action : transformer le système mondial d’aide aux réfugiés, the comprehensive report issued by the World Refugee & Migration Council (WRMC) in early 2019, contains recommendations for urgent and concerted governmental measures to address the global refugee crisis. The report includes the establishment of a global business coalition as a way of bringing together the private sector in support of solutions to the ongoing refugee problem in today’s world.

Taking this as a point of departure, this discussion paper in very summary fashion reviews areas where the private sector and international businesses could play an important, albeit complimentary, role in conjunction with governmental action  

While not substituting for concerted State-based action addressed in the WRMC report, the private sector could be engaged through: 

  • linkages with international business organizations; 
  • corporate social responsibility (CSR) guidelines; 
  • private standard setting; 
  • private certification bodies; and 
  • the work of private foundations. 

This paper doesn’t review these in detail, other to mention some among the many hundreds of private sector activities that could be part of a set of a global solution to the plight of refugee communities and their host countries. 

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