Should corporations be liable for human rights violations under international law?

There is some disagreement among legal practitioners and scholars about whether corporations have duties under international law.

Many argue that only states are bound by international law, and it is those states which are obliged to regulate how businesses operate within their borders. Corporations have only a voluntary responsibility to avoid committing human rights violations through their operations.

I have been doing research in the area of corporate accountability for human rights violations since 2006. My most recent paper looks at the role of multinational corporations (multinationals) in benefiting from and perpetuating structural poverty in the global south.

I argue that international law can no longer exempt corporations from liability for human rights violations, including those arising from poverty. Under certain circumstances, corporations should have duties under international law to ensure human rights are fulfilled. I argue that this is particularly true when it comes to socio-economic rights such as the rights to housing, education, food, water and healthcare.

International human rights law must be developed to impose duties directly on multinational corporations to alleviate poverty in the developing countries where they operate.

This is not an absolute duty – it would only arise in certain circumstances and for specific periods of time, as I show in my paper.

Poverty and corporations

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