Dec. 28, 2010: Online Dialogue- Corporate Accountability Beyond Borders: Exploring home states' efforts to protect against business-related human rights abuses

Publish Date: 
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Source of Information: 
New Tactics

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Original Article published by New Tactics and can be found here.

Join New Tactics and Niko Lusiani of ESCR-Net for an online dialogue on Corporate Accountability Beyond Borders: Exploring home states' efforts to protect against business-related human rights abuses from February 23 to March 1, 2011.

While governments are the primary duty-bearers for upholding human rights, businesses can have disproportionate impacts on all human rights, in all economic sectors, everywhere-supporting or undercutting domestic government actions. As business operations and potential impacts have moved beyond borders, some governments have fought to protect against possible abuse by exerting their laws extraterritorially and by creating new rules, such as those to route out bribery, corruption, human trafficking or sexual tourism. Even so, individuals and communities whose human rights are put at threat by business have faced stiff obstacles to justice at home, and have been repeatedly turned away in these companies' home countries. Subsequently, UN human rights treaty bodies, regional and national courts are increasingly recognizing the need for national governments to actively protect against human rights abuses committed by their companies, no matter where they occur.

This online dialogue will be a space to share experiences using extraterritorial avenues for justice in preventing, punishing and providing remedy for business-related human rights abuses. We will discuss the obstacles and challenges faced by practitioners, share some important victories and discuss the legal and policy justifications for extending human rights protection beyond borders. We hope that this dialogue will serve as a resource for frontline communities, human rights practitioners, legal experts, governments, businesses and other stakeholders in filling the current gap in the active protection of human rights.

The featured resource practitioners committed to help lead this dialogue so far include:

•Niko Lusiani of the Economic, Social, Cultural Rights Network (ESCR-Net), United States

•Hannah Ellis - Coordinator for the Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition, United Kingdom

•Raymond Quiocho Salas of the Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (SALIGAN, Alternative Legal Assistance Center), Philippines

•Valeria Scorza of the Proyecto de Derechos Economicos, Sociales y Culturales, Mexico

•Dr. Mohan lal Panda and Lenin of the Peoples' Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), India

•Amol Mehra of International Corporate Accountability Roundtable ("ICAR"), housed at EarthRights International

•Ana Claudia Tavares, Mariana Trotta, Aline Caldeira Lopes and Fernanda Vieira of the Centro de Assessoria Jurídica Popular Mariana Criola, Brazil

•Álvaro de Regil Castilla of the Jus Semper Global Alliance, United States

•Chris Miller and Djibril Diop - both working on the Congo Conflict Minerals Bill, United States

•Glevys Rondón, Project Director for the Latin American Mining Monitoring Programme, United Kingdom

•Julie Cavanaugh-Bill of the Western Shoshone Defense Project, United States

URL: 
https://www.newtactics.org/en/dialogue/corporate-accountability-beyond-borders
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