2024 Theses Master's

How the Filtering Mechanisms of Materiality and Salience May Hinder Effective Corporate Human Rights Reporting

Ullman, Gregory

A fundamental principle of human rights is that each individual is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be free from human rights violations committed by others. The field of corporations and human rights is dedicated to achieving this result. In the nascent area of corporate human rights reporting, however, several filtering mechanisms are employed to limit the amount and type of information that is included in these reports. These include materiality, which is based on significance, and salience, which is based on urgency.

This paper examines what these concepts mean in the realm of human rights and if the omission of “immaterial” and “non-salient” human rights impacts serves to validate neglect of vulnerable rights holders whose problems are not significant or urgent enough to be reported. The paper concludes that the concepts of materiality and salience may be unnecessary in qualifying human rights impacts. The proposed new European corporate human rights due diligence law may be a step in the direction of limiting their influence.