Human Rights Litigation against Multinationals in Practice

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Global North ◽  
Formed Part ◽  
Parent Companies

This book reviews the current position in this field, which has developed over the past 25 years, designed to hold multinationals to account, legally, for human rights abuses in the Global South. The authors are practising lawyers who have litigated and led prominent cases of legal significance in this field. Although the focus is on the Global North, where most of the cases have been brought—United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, France, Netherlands, and Germany—there is also a chapter on South Africa. The cases cited include claims against parent companies for harm caused by subsidiary operations, claims for corporate complicity in violations perpetrated by States, and claims arising in a supply chain context. Whilst other books have included consideration of the legal aspects of many of the cases, the focus here is on the interrelated strategic and practical, as well as legal, considerations on which viability and prospects of success depend. In addition to questions of jurisdiction, applicable law, and theories of liability, obstacles to justice concerning issues such as access to information, collective actions, witness protection, damages and costs, and funding regimes (including a specific chapter on litigation funding), and issues relating to public pressure and settlement, are discussed. Although most of the authors act for victims, there is a substantial chapter providing the perspectives of business. Since this area of litigation has developed concurrently with, and has formed part of, the rapidly mushrooming field of business and human rights, the contextual relevance of the UNGPs is considered.

Achieving Access to Justice in a Business and Human Rights Context

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Rouas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Corporate Accountability ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Parent Companies

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) can contribute to economic prosperity and social development in the countries where they operate. At the same time, their activities may directly or indirectly cause harm to humans and to the environment. However, MNEs are rarely held accountable for their involvement in human rights abuses and environmental damage. In recent years, activists have challenged corporate impunity by introducing innovative claims seeking to hold parent companies directly liable for the harm caused by their group’s activities. They have also strategically used this type of litigation to trigger corporate accountability reforms at international, regional, and national levels. Using national litigation experiences as a starting point and focusing on European civil-law countries, the book evaluates the extent to which litigation against MNEs has been effective in achieving access to justice and corporate accountability. It also considers whether ongoing regulatory developments, such as the adoption of mandatory human rights due diligence norms and the negotiations for a business and human rights treaty, can contribute to the realisation of access to justice and corporate accountability in the future.

National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights: Progress or Mirage?

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (02) ◽  
pp. 213-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Humberto CANTÚ RIVERA
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
Policy Coherence ◽  
Effective Protection ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Phases Of Development ◽  
Key Policy

AbstractAs of October 2018, 21 states have adopted National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights (NAPs), with several more in different phases of development. This is an important political step to raise awareness of the importance of intragovernmental policy coherence and of the need to move forward to prevent human rights abuses linked to business activity. However, despite the global intergovernmental support to such policy strategies, the actual effectiveness of NAPs needs to be called into question: do they represent progress, or are they a mirage to block possible avenues of development? Currently existing NAPs have done little (yet) to ensure more effective protection in key policy areas, including trade and investment, state-owned enterprises, and particularly in relation to legislative developments and access to remedy. This contribution seeks to analyse the merits of developing NAPs, the importance of ensuring they become only the very first step towards a more effective protection of human rights, and to question whether their importance needs to be adjusted to what they really are: policy tools with limited effects and with a politically linked time frame.

Foreign Direct Liability Claims in Sweden: Learning from Arica Victims KB v. Boliden Mineral AB?

2014 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 404-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasmus Kløcker Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
Court Action ◽  
Environmental Damages ◽  
Liability Claims ◽  
Parent Companies

On 12 September 2013 what may be the first foreign direct liability claim in Sweden was filed in the County Court of Skellefteå, a court action reflective of a growing wave of civil liability suits in European jurisdictions to hold transnational corporations accountable for human rights violations and environmental damages. This article examines the feasibility of foreign direct liability claims in Sweden, focusing on enabling conditions with regards to jurisdiction, collision rules and applicable law, substantial legal basis, procedural and practical circumstances, and the theories by which parent companies can be held liable for negligence in supervising acts of subsidiaries and contractors. It is demonstrated that foreign direct liability claims on environmental damage are indeed possible in Sweden, albeit with considerable constraints, primarily of a procedural and financial character. The conclusion provides some cautious remarks on the merits of the claim against Boliden and the reform options available to a Swedish government committed to improving the access to justice for victims of violations perpetuated by Swedish companies, their subsidiaries and contractors.

scholarly journals Contours of National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights in Central and Eastern Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 174-186
Author(s):  
Jernej Letnar Černič
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Wide Range

Central and Eastern Europe has been often overseen in the debates on business and humanrights. Countries in the regions share a common history, experience and culture. Human rights andfundamental freedoms were in the past systematically and generally violated. Since democratisation,countries have suffered from a wide range of related human rights abuses. Corporations in theregions have often directly and indirectly interfered with the human rights of employees and thewider communities. Business and human rights has in the past lagged behind global developmentsalso in the light of the lack of capacity and general deficient human rights situation. This articledescribes and discusses contours of the National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights of theCzech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Georgia, Ukraine and Slovenia by examining their strengths anddeficiencies. It argues that the field of business and human rights in Central and Eastern Europe hasmade a step forward in the last decade since the adoption of the United Nations Guiding Principleson Business and Human Rights. Nonetheless, human rights should be further translated into practiceto effectively protect human dignity of rights-holders.

scholarly journals Legal Aspects of the Right to Nationality Pursuant to Myanmar Citizenship Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Yin Htun
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Communal Violence ◽  
Legal Reforms ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Right

It is universally accepted that everyone has the right to citizenship. Myanmar’s framework on the right to nationality constitutes a unique, exclusive, ethnic citizenship system based on jus sanguinis or the law of blood. Myanmar’s Citizenship Law was enacted in 1982 by repealing the Union Citizenship Act of 1948. As citizenship parameters were changed by the Law, many people in the Kachin, Karen, and Rakhine states lost their nationality rights and consequently suffered human rights abuses. In the Rakhine state, serious communal violence occurred in 2012, 2016, and 2017, and the government declared a state of emergency. This research paper focuses on how Myanmar can adhere to international standards for nationality rights. It provides a historical overview and legal analysis of citizenship laws in Myanmar using a human rights lens and offers suggestions for legal reforms that can help address the problem of statelessness in Myanmar. Specifically, it recommends the use of the jus soli, or the law of the soil, approach to citizenship.

scholarly journals Beyond the Governance Gap: Accountability in Privatized Migration Control

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 487-505
Author(s):  
Daria Davitti
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Home State ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Business Operations ◽  
Migration Control ◽  
Human Rights Standards ◽  
Security Companies

AbstractThis Article focuses on the accountability challenges raised by the increased involvement of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSC) in migration control. I argue that migration control activities outsourced to PMSC can be classified as high-risk operations for the purposes of the application of relevant business and human rights standards. This reclassification of migration control activities as high-risk business operations, in turn, has two significant implications in terms of establishing accountability for PMSC’s wrongful conduct. First, it acknowledges that the privatization of migration control, especially within the context of continued containment and deterrence trends, entails a high risk of human rights abuses to which PMSC may contribute, both directly and indirectly. Second, this reclassification enables us to identify heightened obligations vested upon the home state of a PMSC, as well as the heightened responsibility of PMSC themselves. The article also examines what these heightened obligations and responsibilities entail.

scholarly journals The Necessity for Revisiting Direct Corporate Human Rights Obligations in the Current Business and Human Rights Treaty Process

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-87
Author(s):  
Philippa Osim Inyang
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Political Will ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Corporate World ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
Economic Capacity ◽  
Good Number

The international community has awoken to the reality that transnational corporations (TNCs) do not only control more resources than a good number of states. They wield enormous influence in the corporate world which greatly impacts on local cultures and initiatives. Many of these TNCs, who operate in developing states, engage in activities which frequently result in human rights abuses. Several states rely on the resources extracted by these large corporations as the main stay of their economies. Consequently, they lack the economic capacity and political will to effectively regulate the activities of the TNCs, leaving these entities to perpetrate human rights abuses in the local communities with impunity. Although the Human Rights Council, through the Inter-governmental working group on Business and Human Rights, has begun a treaty process on business and human rights to address these issues, the work of the IGWG, so far, has not adequately responded the root cause of the corporate impunity, which is their unwillingness and inability to hold corporate entities accountable for their harmful activities. Thus, this paper proposes that the issue of direct human rights obligations on corporate entities should be revisited in order to ensure that corporate entities do not escape accountability for human rights harm resulting from their activities.

Business and Human Rights in Occupied Territory: The UN Database of Business Active in Israel’s Settlements

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina AZAROVA
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Business Environments ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Occupied Territory ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
Scope Of Application ◽  
Normative Issues

AbstractThe law and practice concerning the responsibilities of businesses and the obligations of their home states in relation to private dealings in occupied territory are under-developed. The establishment of a database by the United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to monitor the activities of corporate actors in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) is an opportunity to provide much-needed guidance on the scope of application of existing international law in this paradigmatic case of a high-risk business environment. This article engages with the contribution of this initiative to the regulation of transnational corporate dealings through two normative issues: the structural characteristics and effects of the violations taking place in certain business environments maintained in the OPT on the responsibilities of business and home states; and the various modes through which businesses become directly linked with and contribute to the illicit property rights regime underpinning the existence of settlements and the serious human rights abuses perpetuated by their maintenance.

scholarly journals Collective Responsibility and the Limits of Disclosure in Regulating Global Supply Chains

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 143-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Villiers
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Business ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Company Law ◽  
Global Supply Chains ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Labour Exploitation

Global supply chains present major challenges for company law and corporate governance, nationally and internationally. Their increasing relevance in international business has led to a serious regulatory gap, especially in light of corporate involvement in human rights abuses, labour exploitation and environmental degradation. Alongside a number of international norms such as those expressed in the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, there has been a proliferation in domestic and international law of disclosure provisions, mandating greater transparency by companies in response to the problems caused by global supply chains. In this paper, however, it is argued that disclosure is not a sufficient answer to such problems. It is suggested that we should approach the problems with a different conceptualisation of supply chain structures. If we regard them as ‘global poverty chains’, such a perspective brings about a moral response — a recognition that we have a collective responsibility to eradicate the poverty and suffering caused by the chains. This response necessitates that transparency requirements be altered and accompanied by a regulatory framework that empowers victims of poverty to be able to escape it.

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