"How human rights law has been used to guarantee corporations a ‘right to profit’", 15 March 2017

...[T]he UN Human Rights Council is now serious about developing a new legally binding international instrument on business and human rights. But this...debate...has always been as much about upholding the rights of corporations as it has been about upholding human rights...[T]he legal status of corporations in human rights law has been protected...through the European and the Inter-American human rights systems...[T]he cases in which corporations have the protection of the European Court of Human Rights have been for alleged violations of property rights, the right to a fair trial...and...freedom of expression...The American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) explicitly denies protection for “legal persons”.  There have, however, been cases in the Inter-American Court that allow shareholders to pursue the protection of interests in lieu of the “corporation”...[A]ttempts by countries in the Global North to view corporations as rights holders have a long history...The fundamental coordinates of this assumption – that corporations have a “right” to development and therefore a “right” to profit – can be found in the debate...at the UN Human Rights Council...