Globalisation is a process of interaction and integration among the people, communities, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.

• Globalisation has proved to be a double edged sword. It has been allegedly responsible for human rights violations as follows: Globalisation has led to relocation of industries to areas where it not only leads to environmental degradation but also directly impacts the rights of forest dwellers, indigenous people dependent on natural resources as was argued in the case of establishment of POSCO plant, a South Korean steel major in Odisha.
• Trans-National Companies (TNCS) are increasingly becoming more powerful and influential and often use their influence to encourage governments to adopt policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization that ignore human rights as well as rights of workers. For instance, in the 1990s, Nike sportswear was plagued with damning reports that its global supply chain was being supported by child labour in places like Cambodia and Pakistan.
• Increased use of technology raised issues related to the right to privacy. Similarly technologies, such as digitalization, biotechnology and human cloning, etc. have serious implications for the realization of various human rights.
• Globalisation has led to a culture of consumerism where corporations strive hard and compete fiercely to increase their profits and capture more market share. For example, the use of famous personalities or women in sexually explicit advertisements. It dictates life’s priorities not on the basis of rational and free decision making but on corporate interests, which poses a serious challenge to the realization of human rights.
• The Copenhagen Declaration itself recognizes that the rapid processes of change and adjustment due to globalisation have been accompanied by intensified poverty, unemployment and social disintegration.

However, the same globalisation has also promoted human rights movements that counter its own excesses as explained below:

• Globalisation has led to the development of legislations such as the International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) under Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which ensure protection of human rights.
• International bodies such as the IMF and World Bank provide loans and policy advice to the developing nations to eradicate poverty and the WTO agreements try to balance the norms and standards of human rights along with the economic aspects of the liberalization of trade.
• Globalisation has contributed to the development of corporate social responsibility and the concern for the accountability of non-state actors, such as transnational corporations for their activities, particularly when impacting negatively on the environment, on communities, and so on.
• Consumer boycotts and campaigns have also led TNCs to be more attentive to social responsibility and to their reputation risk.
• It has also helped in opening up the avenues, and acceptance of rights of women, as well as those belonging to depressed class/caste/race, etc.

There is a need to rethink about the manner in which globalisation spreads. The world should strive towards ethical globalisation.