Human Rights Reporting in the Financial Services Sector in Australia : A Perspective of Non-State Regulatory Modes

The paper aims to critically explore human rights reporting in the financial sector in Australia. Three interrelated regulatory modes models including an intergovernmental mode, a non-governmental mode and market based mode have been used to show the extent to which the financial service sector is both subject to different human rights regulatory pressures as well as highlight how access to capital is also emerging as a regulatory mechanism in the promotion of human rights. A composite checklist of human rights disclosures was developed using thirteen twelve international human rights guidelines. The reporting media of the top fifty companies in the financial services sector in Australia have been reviewed as a part of the analysis. The evidence shows that human rights, as they are expressed through currently available corporate human rights codes of inter-governmental organizations, has entered the accountability discourse of Australian banks as it is construed within their corporate disclosure mechanisms. In terms of the regulatory modes model as mentioned above, we found some evidence of inter-governmental and non-governmental pressure beginning to result in market based modes of regulation. However the evidence is weak. The study contends that the prevailing regulatory environment is ineffective to the extent that victims of human rights abuses lack effective access to remedies. Further evidence is required to understand how human rights are/(are not) integrated in the organisational performance evaluation setting. This study is the first known study within the discipline of accounting that explores financial institutions responsibility in relation to human rights and associated reporting