The US Supreme Court Decides Kiobel: Denies Extraterritoriality for the ATS

On 17 April 2013 the US Supreme Court decided the case KIOBEL, INDIVIDUALLY AND ON BEHALF OF HER LATE HUSBAND KIOBEL, ET AL. v. ROYAL DUTCH PETROLEUM CO. ET AL. The full text of the decision is available here.

Petitioners, Nigerian nationals residing in the United States, filed suit in federal court under the Alien Tort Statute, alleging that respondents—certain Dutch, British, and Nigerian corporations—aided and  …

BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: OBLIGATIONS, CHALLENGES AND IMPLEMENTATION

The Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences in Vietnam together with the Vietnam Programme at the Norwegian Centre for Human Right, University of Oslo, call for papers to an international conference on business and human rights to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 27-28 June 2013. The Conference is inter-disciplinary and aimed at bringing together scholars and practitioners with an interest in the area.
The huge economic …

Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

Pre-Subscribe Now: Handbook on UN Guiding Principles
SAI & ICCO’s Handbook offers a six-step approach to help businesses implement the Principles in their supply chain
Social Accountability International (SAI) and the Netherlands-based Interchurch Organisation for Development Cooperation (ICCO) are pleased to announce that, due to high interest, its joint Handbook and Toolkit is now available for pre-subscription. It is scheduled to be published electronically July 1, 2012 …

Opening Remarks to The Editorial Team and Members of International Law Observer by Salma Yusuf

Greetings to fellow members of the international legal community representing the diverse jurisdictions and legal systems of the world!
It is both a pleasure and a privilege to be welcomed to the distinguished Panel of Authors of the Editorial Team at the International Law Observer. Thank you, Dominik Zimmerman, Editor-in-Chief of the International Law Observer, for the kind words of introduction.
It is indeed humbling to be …

UNCTAD Principles on Responsible Sovereign Lending & Borrowing: A Comparative Legal Survey

The following is a guest post by Professor Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, currently UNCTAD Sovereign Debt Expert, who has previously contributed to the International Law Observer on the topic of “Past and Present of Corporate Complicity for Financing Human Rights Abuses: The Relevance of the Cassese report“, the unveiling of the UNCTAD principles to guide responsible sovereign lending and borrowing and the UNCTAD conference on the Principles on …

Past and Present of Corporate Complicity for Financing Human Rights Abuses: The Relevance of the Cassese report

The following is a guest post by Professor Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky. Dr. Bohoslavsky is currently the Program Director for the LL.M in Global Administrative Law at the University of Rio Negro, in Patagonia, Argentina. He also works as a legal consultant for the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Salamanca (2007) and a European Doctorate after …

Draft Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

A number of authors on this blog have followed the progress of the human rights and business agenda at the United Nations over the past few years (e.g. here and here).  The work of the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights is coming to a culmination as his mandate expires in 2011.  With this in mind, the Special Representative has published draft Guiding Principles for …

Council of Europe Report on Human Rights and Business

Council of Europe has recently published a report on human rights and business. It was prepared by rapporteur Mr Holger Haibach. Here is the summary:

With globalisation, large multinational companies have faced charges that they are violating human rights, especially in developing countries: child labour in the textile industry, environmental disasters caused by the oil industry, or breaches of the right to privacy by telecommunication companies are …

New FIDH Report and the Prospects of International Justice

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), a major umbrella NGO for over 160 different organisations, recently (July 2010) launched “Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses: A Guide for Victims and NGOs on Recourse Mechanisms“. The guide is comprised of five sections. Each examines a different type of instrument, including intergovernmental mechanisms, legal options, mediation mechanisms such as the OECD national contact points, complaints mechanisms …

2010 Ruggie Report on Business and Human Rights

Professor Ruggie, the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights has released his latest report – Report of the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights: Further steps towards the operationalization of the “protect, respect, remedy” framework.  The 2010 report continues to build on the protect, respect and remedy framework outlined in previous reports by the Special Representative – see previous post on …

Update of the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises

The OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises are non-binding principles concerning the conduct of multinational enterprises operating in or from the territories of adhering countries. The Guidelines were first adopted in 1976 as part of the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises. Today, adhering countries include all 30 OECD Members as well as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Morocco, Peru, Romania, and …

A report on Transnational Corporations and the Right to Food

New York University Students for Human Rights have prepared a report on Transnational Corporations on the Right to Food. The Report was requested by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food ‘to inform a multi-stakeholder consultation convening on June 19-20, 2009 in Berlin, Germany on the role of the agribusiness sector in the realization of the right to food.’ The Report concludes in …

Saro-Wiwa Settlement

On International Law Reporter, Prof. Cogan links to a short piece by Ingrid Wuerth describing the recent settlement reached in the lawsuit before a district court in New York filed under the Alien Tort Statute by the relatives of Ken Saro-Wiwa against Shell. We have previously blogged about the case here.

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Backer on business and human rights

Professor Larry Catá Backer has recently published in Melbourne Journal of International Law an excellent case note on two recent cases decided by UK National Contact Point under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Here is the title and abstract:
Rights and Accountability in Development (‘Raid’) v Das Air and Global Witness v. Afrimex – Small steps towards an autonomous transnational legal system for the regulation …

The Recession and the Rule of Law

Last week, Amnesty International published its 2009 Report on the state of human rights across the globe. Perhaps not surprisingly, the report, inter alia, focuses on some of the effects that the current economic situation has on the respect for human rights. Thus, the foreword by Secretary General Irene Kahn notes that “it is not just the economy, it’s a human rights crisis”. While the …

John Ruggie's 2009 report on Business and Human Rights

Professor John Ruggie, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary General on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises (hereinafter J. Ruggie), and his team, have recently published 2009 report on ‘Business and human rights: Towards operationalizing the »the protect, respect and remedy« framework« (U.N. Doc. A/HRC/11/13/, 22 April 2009). In his recent report, J. Ruggie follows his three-pillar framework for corporate …

The Legacy of Saro-Wiwa

To many human rights, environmental and corporate social responsibility scholars the name of Ken Saro-Wiwa is all too familiar. Saro-Wiwa was a Nigerian author and environmental campaigner fighting the exploitation of natural resources and alleged human rights violation in his native Ogoniland in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. In 1995, Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian authorities following a trial in which he was found …

Corporate human rights abuses require stronger international and domestic legal regimes

The US government published in February 2009 its decision that it will not renew its contract with the private security corporation formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide. Such a decision comes as no surprise given the allegations of killing 17 civilians by Blackwater guards, coupled with the Iraqi government’s refusal to extend Blackwater’s operating license. This case, however, opens again a number of conundrums relating to …