Negotiating the Hard/Soft Law Divide in Business and Human Rights: The Implementation of the UNGPs in the European Union

Global Policy ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Augenstein
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Soft Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Business And Human Rights

scholarly journals Human Rights in the Light of the Process of Financialisation

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 161-185
Author(s):  
Tomasz Nieborak
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Financial Market ◽  
Market Regulation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Financial Market Regulation ◽  
The Core ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Rights Issues

Abstract The article deals with the challenges resulting from financialisation, in which we observe an increasing impact of the financial sphere in man’s everyday life. It also considers the effect of this process on the functioning of societies and concludes that the process of creating and applying financial market law must be redefined and human rights issues taken into account. In addition to the activity of the UN and the European Union in promoting the concept of business and human rights, the experiences of recent years show that combining human rights with financial market regulation is possible. To achieve this, however, many actors must be involved and a specific understanding of human rights and values must be adopted, and their protection should constitute the core of the legislator’s activity.

Nevsun: A Ray of Hope in a Darkening Landscape?

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-251
Author(s):  
Upendra BAXI
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
High Time ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Business And Human Rights

AbstractThis article explores some aspects of the Canadian Supreme Court’s decision on Nevsun Resources v Araya in the light of its exposition on the act of state doctrine and application of core human rights as an integral aspect of international customary law and common law. It examines the Nevsun decision in the context of recent statutory developments in France and the Netherlands, the promised law reform in the European Union, and the proposed business and human rights treaty. I argue that it is high time to abandon the doctrinal fossil that human rights obligations do not apply to corporate governance and operations. It is hoped that COVID-19 contexts, and a post-pandemic world, will expeditiously result in the willing adoption of a treaty on business and human rights.

scholarly journals Legal challenges for the European Union concerning an international treaty on business and human rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 933-978
Author(s):  
Ondrej Blažo ◽  
Adam Máčaj
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
International Treaty ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Derechos Humanos ◽  
Legal Challenges

Las violaciones de los derechos humanos perpetradas por empresas son una realidad que ha sido un tema de derecho internacional y órganos de los derechos humanos por un período considerable. A lo largo de los años, se contemplaron diversas propuestas e instrumentos de carácter diverso para la regulación de la conducta empresarial. Todos son objeto de un intenso escrutinio y se han convertido en elementos polémicos entre los Estados involucrados en las negociaciones. El único documento adoptado por consenso en las Naciones Unidas, los Principios Rectores sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos, contiene reglas no vinculantes. Sin embargo, los intentos de producir un tratado internacional vinculante nunca cesaron y actualmente se debaten con una participación considerable de la Unión Europea (UE). El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el progreso en el marco de desarrollo de las relaciones de las actividades comerciales con los derechos humanos, considerar la participación de la UE y determinar si la UE puede seguir avanzando en el estándar de protección, especialmente si tiene competencia suficiente para concluir el posible acuerdo de empresas y derechos humanos y qué enfoques son viables para que la UE implemente dicho acuerdo en su ordenamiento jurídico.

scholarly journals The Rise of Private Military and Security Companies in European Union Migration Policies: Implications under the UNGPs

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria DAVITTI
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Migration Policies ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Current Context ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Security Companies

AbstractThis article examines the involvement of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) in both shaping and implementing the European Agenda on Migration (European Agenda), launched by the European Union in May 2015. The migration policies which have since been adopted have increasingly enabled the outsourcing to private security contractors of various border control operations, including those related to forced returns, administrative detention and security services for the Italian and Greek ‘hotspots’. The article argues that PMSCs frame, shape and entrench militarized responses in the European Agenda. It also contends that the current context of the European refugee ‘crisis’ meets the conditions of a high-risk context, as understood within the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). This re-definition of the refugee ‘crisis’ as a high-risk context, in turn, enables the identification of heightened human rights obligations of home states and responsibilities of companies when implementing the UNGPs.

Drafting an International Legally Binding Instrument on Business and Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 466-485
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Karska
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Legal Grounds

Abstract This article deals with the process of creating a convention in the field of human rights, the working name of which is the ‘International Legally Binding Instrument on Business and Human Rights’. The author analyses the existing legal grounds for the responsibility of business for human rights violations in international law. She has assessed non-binding instruments, leading her to draw the conclusion that mechanisms strengthening protection are required in human rights protection law. The process of the creation of a new convention itself is subjected to an in-depth review. A special place is given to the issue of the position of a victim of human rights violations committed as a result of the activity of transnational enterprises, the rights of the victims of such violations and the mechanisms of international cooperation in the combatting thereof. In the conclusion the author states that human rights require actions that move beyond existing divisions, and that the work of the intergovernmental group led by Ecuador should be seriously supported by the European Union and the United States.

scholarly journals The UNGPs in the European Union: The Open Coordination of Business and Human Rights?

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel AUGENSTEIN ◽  
Mark DAWSON ◽  
Pierre THIELBÖRGER
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Open Method Of Coordination ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Eu Fundamental Rights ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThe article examines the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in the European Union via National Action Plans (NAPs). We argue that some of the shortcomings currently observed in the implementation process could effectively be addressed through the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) – a governance instrument already used by the European Union (EU) in other policy domains. The article sketches out the polycentric global governance approach envisaged by the UNGPs and discusses the institutional and policy background of their implementation in the EU. It provides an assessment of EU member states’ NAPs on business and human rights, as benchmarked against international NAP guidance, before relating experiences with the existing NAP process to the policy background and rationale of the OMC and considering the conditions for employing the OMC in the business and human rights domain. Building on a recent opinion of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency, the article concludes with a concrete proposal for developing an OMC on business and human rights in the EU.

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