Boards will not support human rights proposals for a few reasons:

1. Corporations are not agents for social change - they exist to deliver to their owners that which the owners want (leaving aside the distortions caused by board and management subjectivity, greed and stupidity).

2. What is ethical for one person is not ethical for another. What is oppression for one, is freedom to treat for another. This doesn't in any way justify or condone unethical practices, but it does emphasize the "greyness" of the discussion.

3. What is unethical in say, a Western society, may be totally acceptable in another country in which the corporation is active. Take treatment of women for example. Treating women equally is a given (at least in theory) in Western economies while women are treated as chattels in many second and third-world economies.

4. A large number of investors / shareholders earn their funds through questionable activities and from questionable sources.

5. If society wants corporations to support human rights principles, then, assuming one could define them in a way that would secure widespread agreement, you should legislate for such principles and practices so that all corporations are on a level playing field. In other words, government must define what companies can and can't do. This will be a challenge since first-world governments themselves deal with, support and fund second and third-world countries that commonly act in a manner that contravenes human rights.

6. Therefore, if you want human rights principles to prevail, then two initiatives are needed:

• Have governments legislate for it (despite the caveats above) and demonstrate in their other dealings the human rights principles they expect of corporations;
• Have shareholders withhold their investment in those companies who demonstrably do not exhibit positive human rights behaviours. If you hit the company in a manner it understands, i.e. financially, then it will alter its behaviour. Appealing to a board's altruistic motivations is like asking an alcoholic to refrain from drinking at a party at a brewery.

Expecting boards to behave above the lowest common standard is a futile expectation.