• modern slavery
• child labour
• human rights
• corporate governance

The thesis provides a detailed relationship between corporate governance and human rights from different perspectives. Though there is no all-encompassing corporate strategy to tackle the human rights issue, the research is a comprehensive amalgam of existing approaches to elicit the human rights violations in corporations, the responsibilities of corporates, and the strategies to overcome these challenges.
To have a thorough understanding of the topic under consideration and have an unbiased analysis, research papers were collected, studied, and compared. The end product is a credible and authentic document encompassing the critical facets of human rights and corporate governance. Likewise, the prevailing violations such as child labour and modern slavery have also been discussed in essence, and the logical results elucidated are evidence of the importance of human rights and the considerable role of the board in doing so. The general counsel has to guide the corporate in such regard. However, as long as the board of directors is non-cooperative, humans will continue to be adversely affected within a corporate.
Therefore, it is paramount to understand the connection between human rights and corporate governance, as it allows the board of directors, executives, and managers to take into account human rights issues as part of its risk management responsibilities and business ethics. The board of directors is the primary stakeholder and influences corporate governance. Hence, their substantial impact on human rights practices cannot be neglected. Similarly, a successful corporate maintains healthy relations with all of its stakeholders.
The board of directors also coordinate in the best interests of the shareholders. Board is responsible for creating a culture and strategy to ensure adequate risk management. Alongside that, board diversity plays a crucial role in CSR performance. The higher number of independent non-executive directors, board diversity and board size positively and effectively impact CSR performance. The structural and demographic characteristics/ dimensions of board diversity lead to better governance, particularly in human rights issues.
Though the Universal Declaration and various charters on human rights give the vision of the world whereby every man lives free from oppression, violence, hunger, hatred, etc., as long as there are human beings, there will be issues relating to human rights violations. There can not be a utopian society and an utterly rights-respecting culture. Nevertheless, the board of directors within a corporation can minimize the violations and take necessary steps to pursue to eliminate the menace. It can lead to legal risks when corporations dismiss more significant interests, particularly obligations related to international human rights.
Therefore, the thesis entails various aspects of human rights violations and the roles of different determining factors working collaboratively. Since there is no particular formula to acquire the desired outcomes for every situation, it is pertinent that the board of directors work for and by the guidelines given by the universally accepted relevant organs of the United Nations. Moreover, the board must work for and also take into account the legal advice of the general counsel concerning the hard and the soft laws, improvement in the CSR performance, and in the best interests of all the stakeholders — internal as well as external — to ensure their corporate performs the best.