Ensuring the Primacy of Human Rights in Trade and Investment Policies - Model Clauses for a UN Treaty on Transnational Corporations, Other Businesses and Human Rights

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Krajewski
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
Trade And Investment

scholarly journals The extraterritorial human rights obligations of the EU in its external trade and investment policies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antal Berkes
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
External Trade ◽  
Member States ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
Treaty Monitoring ◽  
Trade And Investment ◽  
The Eu

The EU is bound by human rights obligations toward individuals outside the territory of its Member States who are affected by its trade and investment policies. Internal rules of the EU, namely the Founding Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and various external norms, that is international law sources, impose human rights obligations on the EU. Those human rights obligations are increasingly interpreted by treaty monitoring bodies as requiring extraterritorial due diligence duties from States parties, in the sense that the creation of substantial and foreseeable effects outside the State’s territory establishes the jurisdiction of the State party. This jurisdiction leads to positive obligations, namely the duty to exert due diligence on trade and investment policies. The EU is expected to assess the risks of human rights violations by its trade and investment partners in and outside its Member States and take all reasonable efforts to avoid foreseeable human rights violations. Although those human rights are likely to continue to be unenforceable before the Court of Justice, the consistent reference to due diligence obligations by treaty monitoring bodies, the European Ombudsman and the European Data Protection Supervisor should encourage EU institutions to comply with their due diligence obligations.

scholarly journals Corporations and Human Rights Obligations

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis G ARNOLD
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
The Third ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Argument Proceeds ◽  
Policies And Practices

AbstractThe claim that corporations have human rights obligations remains contentious and can be fraught with confusion. This article synthesizes existing corporate human rights theory and responds to objections to the idea that transnational corporations (TNCs) have human rights obligations. The argument proceeds in three stages. The first section describes the different forms TNCs take and explains why TNCs are properly understood as moral agents responsible for their policies and practices. The second section reviews and explains different philosophical theories of corporate human rights obligations. The third section articulates and responds to objections to the idea that corporations have human rights obligations. The main conclusion of this article is that there are multiple, compelling and overlapping justifications of corporate human rights obligations.

From a Stark Utopia to Everyday Utopias

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 575-606
Author(s):  
Michelle Staggs Kelsall
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
Public Domain ◽  
Due Diligence ◽  
Karl Polanyi ◽  
Business And Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Council ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Human Rights Due Diligence

This article considers the emergence of the Business and Human Rights agenda at the United Nations (UN). It argues that the agenda can be seen as an example of the UN Human Rights Council attempting to institutionalise everyday utopias within an emerging global public domain. Utilising the concept of embedded pragmatism and tracing the underlying rationale for the emergence of the agenda to the work of Karl Polanyi, the article argues that the Business and Human Rights agenda seeks to institutionalise human rights due diligence processes within transnational corporations in order to create a pragmatic alternative to the stark utopia of laissez-faire liberal markets. It then provides an analytical account of the implications of human rights due diligence for the modes and techniques business utilises to assess human rights harm. It argues that due to the constraints imposed by the concept of embedded pragmatism and the normative indeterminacy of human rights, the Business and Human Rights agenda risks instituting human rights within the corporation through modes and techniques that maintain human rights as a language of crisis, rather than creating the space for novel, everyday utopias to emerge.

New Thinking on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-173
Author(s):  
Atabongawung Tamo
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Transnational Corporations ◽  
New Thinking
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