Transnational Corporations under International Human Rights Law: Reversing the Accountability Vacuum

Abstract

Symbolizing the profound influence of globalization, the international community has witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of transnational corporations (TNCs) operating in every corner of the globe than at any time in the history of humanity. Associated with it, two facts emphatically attracting the attention of the international community have come to the scene. For one thing, TNCs engage in violations of human rights and freedoms, albeit their marvelous contribution in lifting the human family from deplorable to favorable life conditions. For the other, international human rights law, as it now stands, is by far inadequate in terms of its substantive, institutional and procedural aspects to ensure the compliance of TNCs with international human rights standards. That is mainly the case because the obligations it imposes are almost exclusively addressed to states while non-state actors, particularly TNCs, cause violations of human rights and freedoms roughly comparable to those usually caused by the so-called historical violators of human rights – states. As a result, TNCs are operating in the atmosphere of an ‘accountability vacuum’ in the kingdom of international human rights law. Aimed to put forward a new legal horizon that helps to reverse this accountability vacuum, this study adopts an innovative approach and argues for the adoption of a new international human rights treaty that imposes direct obligations on TNCs and establishes international institutional-procedural means of implementation for the same. To that end, the study first analytically uncovers the gaps in the existing international human rights law in the area under consideration and then embarks on the rationalization of the new treaty including the relations it should have with other international human rights treaties, investment treaties and agreements as well as commercial treaties.