"Approaching States’ Obligations Under a Prospective Legally Binding Instrument on TNCs and Other Business Enterprises In Regard to Human Rights", 1 Oct 2016

The duty of the State to protect against human rights violations by private entities and to ensure remedies for victims of such violations is well established under international human rights law...Yet...individual States often face limitations in their ability to respond to human rights violations by private entities...The mandate of the intergovernmental working group is to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises (hereafter referred to as the Instrument).  This mandate presents States with a multitude of strategic choices and policy options, including...[the question of which entities'] conduct will be subject to the disciplines...[This] brief...[attempts] to highlight some of the areas that are decisive in regard to access to remedy by victims of corporate human rights abuse.  States could cooperate towards filling such gaps in the international legal order...These include clarification of States’ extraterritorial obligations, ensuring certain requirements under national legislation in regard to the conduct and liability of corporations, and cooperation in regard to investigation, recognition and enforcement...