Corporate Social Responsibility has no settled definition, but for the purpose of Actionable Ideas: A discourse on Corporate Social Responsibility, it is defined as 

• the responsibilities of corporations towards actors other than their shareholders, including human rights, environmental and other areas.
  

Professor John Ruggie, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General stated in his final report to the UN Human Rights Committee:

(at para. 82.) The permissive conditions for business-related human rights abuses today are created by a misalignment between economic forces and governance capacity. Only a realignment can fix the problem. In principle, public authorities set the rules within which business operates. But at the national level some governments simply may be unable to take effective action, whether or not the will to do so is present. And in the international arena states themselves compete for access to markets and investments, thus collective action problems may restrict or impede their serving as the international community’s “public authority.” The most vulnerable people and communities pay the heaviest price for these governance gaps.

To fix this human rights problem, he called for changes and research around the "I. State duty to protect; II. Corporate responsibility and accountability for international crimes; III. Corporate responsibility for other human rights violations under international law; IV. Soft law mechanisms; V. Self-regulation."

The recent Canadian National Roundtables on the Extractive Industy, which included representatives from industry, civil society and government, defined corporate social responsibility as “the way firms integrate social, environmental and economic concerns into their values, culture, decision-making, strategy and operations in a transparent and accountable manner and thereby establish better practices within the firm, create wealth and improve society.” (Advisory Group: National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Canadian Extractive Industry in Developing Countries, “Advisory Group Report” (Mar. 29, 2007))

For further discussion see

1. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
2. Canadian CSR Round Tables - Government of Canada - home page
3. Mining Association of Canada - Industry Association
4. Halifax Initiative & Mining Watch - Monitoring and advocacy NGOs
5. Corpobligation.com for news and analysis