CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

ALLA TYMOFEYEVA CYIL 11 (2020) labour exploitation involving up to several hundred workers in the forestry sector, which took place relatively recently in the Czech Republic, 38 is absolutely impermissible. In view of the principles established in the UDHR and per the guidance of the UNGPs, the Czech government included this issue in the National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights for the period of 2017–2022. 39 This government action demonstrates that, although the IBHR guarantees no rights to business entities, it is seen as an instrument that requires businesses to comply with human rights standards as established therein. Research on the provisions of the UDHR reveals that while one may not absolutely assign the status as a human rights holders for businesses, it is definitely possible to speak about their role of human rights obligators. The last part of the paper will concentrate on the differences between the legal position of business entities under the ECHR and the UDHR. The research will cover the shared as well as the distinct features of these two documents with an emphasis on the status of businesses. 3. Comparison of the legal standing of businesses under the ECHR and the UDHR The idea of a comparison of regional and universal mechanisms of human rights protection is not new. Many studies have been done on the subject-matter. 40 Some of these scientific papers were focused specifically on an examination of the common provisions of the ECHR and UDHR. 41 There exist studies on the status of business entities and human rights as a whole, 42 but there is a gap in respect to the research regarding an assessment of the business entities’ legal standing under these two very famous documents, the UDHR and ECHR. In view of this, one of the objectives of the following part of this paper is to fill this gap. As stated above, the ECHR and UDHR possess a number of common provisions, particularly in the domain of human rights. For example, the prohibition of discrimination expressed in Article 2 of the UDHR corresponds to the content of Article 14 of the ECHR. There is no doubt that such behaviour is prohibited with respect to individuals, but the answer is not as evident concerning the activities of businesses. Given the main objective of the current paper, namely, to examine the position of business entities under the two documents at issue, the main differences between the ECHR 38 See Finding of the Constitutional Court II. ÚS 3436/14 of 19 January 2016 and Finding of the Constitutional Court I. ÚS 3196/12 of 12 August 2014. 39 National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights for the period of 2017-2022, Czech Republic, p. 16. 40 See e.g. Universal and regional human rights protection: cases and commentaries . University for Peace, 2004. ISBN: 9977925240; DE SCHUTTER, Olivier. International Human Rights Law: Cases, Materials, Commentary . Cambridge University Press, 2014. ISBN: 9781107063754; Human rights mechanisms. URL: [visited on 3 March 2019]; BUCKLEY, Carla M. (ed.). Towards convergence in international human rights law: approaches of regional and international systems . Leiden; Boston: Brill Nijhoff, 2017. ISBN: 9789004284241. 41 MOWBRAY, Alastair. The European Convention on Human Rights, In International human rights law: six decades after the UDHR and beyond / edited by Mashood A. Baderin, Manisuli Ssenyonjo. - Farnham; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 271-288. ISBN: 9781409403593; CLANCY, Deirdre. Answering the challenge of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The Council of Europe and human rights. In International Journal of Human Rights , Vol. 3, no. 3, 1999, pp. 120-131. 42 See e.g. RUGGIE, John Gerard. Protect, respect, and remedy: the UN Framework for Business and Human Rights, pp. 519-538. In International human rights law: six decades after the UDHR and beyond / edited by Mashood A. Baderin, Manisuli Ssenyonjo. - Farnham; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2010. ISBN: 9781409403593.

66