ECH 2300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: United Nations Human Rights Council, Law Of Obligations, Global Network Initiative
21 Jun 2018
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Module 8: Business and Human Rights
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
-The United Nations Human Rights Council endorsed the "Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations 'Protect, Respect and Remedy'
Framework" in 2011. This framework consists of the state duty to protect against
human rights abuses; the corporate responsibility to respect human rights; and greater
access by victims to effective remedies.
Voluntary vs. regulatory: how to best ensure compliance?
-International treaties places obligations on states (who report to UN)
-UN treaty bodies cannot ask companies to come
-States must properly regulate corporate conduct (duty to protect) – PRIMARY means
-What is states fail (incapable, ineffective)
-Two distinct approaches
1. Legal obligation / enforcement
Company must respect law in country of operation
When states implement international law, these laws should already be there
(health and safety, environmental)
What if local laws fall short? One way is compliance in home state!
Activists have sued corporations in the country of headquarters for human rights
abuses in countries of operation
Toronto: against Canadian mining company for human rights abuses in
Guatemala
Difficult to convince home courts!
Another option is criminal liability (ICC vs. individuals)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
