EDITORIAL From Formalism to Feminism: Gender, Business and Human Rights Nora Götzmann 1 * , Joanna Bourke Martignoni 2 , Bonita Meyersfeld 3 and Harpreet Kaur 4 1 Chief Adviser, Human Rights and Business, The Danish Institute for Human Rights, Denmark’s National Human Rights Institution; Adjunct Researcher, Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, Sustainable Minerals Institute, The University of Queensland, Australia 2 Senior Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights; Affiliate of the Gender Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland 3 Associate Professor, University of the Witwatersrand Law School; Advocate of the High Court of South Africa 4 Business and Human Rights Specialist, United Nations Development Programme, Asia-Pacific *Corresponding author. Email: nog@humanrights.dk Abstract This special issue uses feminist perspectives to explore the field of business and human rights (BHR). Gendered inequalities, based on embodied, assigned or presumed gender identities and sexual orientations, have long been eclipsed from international law; the same has occurred in BHR. Rarely is gender addressed holistically to fully encompass the systemic discrimination and deep-seated patriarchal and neo-colonial structures that create and perpetuate inequalities. The contributions in this special issue challenge both the absence of attention to gender in BHR as well as conventional approaches used to address gendered inequalities within BHR discourses and frameworks. Three recurring themes characterize the special issue: (1) bodies and embodiment; (2) women’s positionality in the marketplace; and (3) borderlessness. Collectively, the contributions proffer feminist approaches to BHR that embed gender justice as foundational, rather than an afterthought. Keywords: intersectionality; LGBTIþ rights; non-discrimination and equality; United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs); women’s rights I. Introduction Feminist theorists have long criticized the invisibility of gendered inequalities in international law. 1 The field of business and human rights (BHR) is no exception. From its inception, until recently, foundational BHR frameworks and many of the actors working on their development and implementation have been blind to gender differences, and assumed © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press. 1 Bonita Meyersfeld, ‘Business, Human Rights and Gender: A Legal Approach to External and Internal Considerations’ in Surya Deva and David Bilchitz (eds.), Human Rights Obligations of Business: Beyond the Corporate Responsibility to Respect (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013) 193; Hilary Charlesworth, Christine Chinkin and Shelley Wright, ‘Feminist Approaches to International Law’ (1991) 85:4 American Journal of Inter- national Law 613. Business and Human Rights Journal (2022), 7,1–11 doi:10.1017/bhj.2021.61 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/bhj.2021.61 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 3.235.192.90, on 03 Mar 2022 at 14:07:05, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at