12. Designing a Human Rights Management Systems Standard: A Practical Approach to Business Enterprise Human Rights in Asia

This chapter examines the potential for a business enterprise human rights practice. It argues that there is a need to develop different approaches to protection, or look for different approaches to reinforce the principles. It argues for using a unique approach: the statistical value of human life (VHL), which is important in a world where measuring net benefit is a cornerstone of policy. By learning how to systematically value our own lives we can improve the quality and dignity of our lives both at a personal level and in the context of the workplace. The intent of organisations and institutions that use this idea is to optimise the allocation of resources and improve the quality of lives of citizens, stop lives being needlessly lost, and enhance sustainability. Calculating the VHL has been particularly important in health care and the transport safety sector and it has been spectacularly successful in the commercial aviation sector.