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Article

4 Mar 2015

Author:
Stéfanie Khoury & David Whyte, Univ. of Liverpool

Academics explore development of legally binding ways to address corporate abuses of human rights

"New Mechanisms of Accountability for Corporate Violations of Human Rights", 3 Mar 2015

The call by the UN Human Rights Council…to begin drafting a legally binding agreement that addresses corporate harms appears to be consistent with the current policy of the Council of Europe. A binding agreement may not offer a quick fix to solve the problem of corporate violations of human rights, but it could…begin to tackle some of the related issues (regulatory gaps, uneven standards of domestic oversight, monitoring and enforcement)…[and] would begin to offer alternative means of remedy for victims. Such a move would…require some form of judicial enforcement mechanism. In this report we have considered some of the options to develop such a mechanism, as proposed by human rights professionals…[R]espondents identified a number of significant barriers to the development of such a mechanism…[T]he most widely referred to was the power of the corporate lobby;…the economic impact of regulating corporate conduct, the complexities of law and of corporate structures…[R]espondents were also clear about the pressing need for reform, and were generally clear about the central role that courts and related legal form can play…[Refers to Chevron, Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, Goldcorp, Shell, Texaco (part of Chevron), Unocal (part of Chevron)]