Companies exert enormous influence through their lobbying, marketing and business relationships.  There are good reasons to push back on this influence, given that it vastly outweighs the voice of civil society and can undermine democratic processes.  But there are times when it may be helpful to have companies speak out in support of human rights issues or human rights defenders.  Under shareholder pressure, Pepsi was willing to publicly acknowledge the right to water -- a right that mainstream human rights groups have been tentative about, let alone governments.  Under pressure from Oxfam, Coke publicly declared zero tolerance for land grabs and pushed for stronger land rights provisions at a key UN-guided proccess (info about that here).  Just as environmental groups have rallied companies to support their causes (CERES has been very effective doing that), some human rights- minded groups have looked to apparel, extractives, IT and other companies to push for strong oversight and regulations, and help civil society groups gain access to political processes. We need to insist that companies "talk the walk" - speak out about the sustainabililty and human rights commitments that they make and condemn human rights violations publicly. BHRRC has tools to encourage companies to speak up around human rights defenders - here.   I believe we can do that without risking a further corruption of the system, but it's an issue that has to be treated with eyes wide open for risks of legitimating or greenwashing bad actors, having human rights language coopted and crowding out civil society voices.