CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

CYIL 11 (2020) RESPONSIBILITY OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS UNDER THE DRAFT … the importance of this issue, who was the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights at the time. The Ruggies Principles (the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights) 7 were endorsed unanimously by the UN Human Rights Council nine years ago. The Ruggies Principles do not try to establish specific obligations of corporations in relation to specific human rights. They are comprised of 31 principles and corresponding commentaries that clarify legal and policy implementation. The principles are based on three pillars under which states have the duty to protect against corporate human rights abuses by third parties, corporations have responsibility to respect human rights, and, at both levels, greater access by victims to an effective remedy needs to be ensured. The Ruggies Principles apply to all states and all business enterprises and cover all internationally recognized human rights (at minimum, all rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work). Under current international human rights law framework, states are not obligated to take steps to prevent business related abuse of human rights committed abroad by business enterprises incorporated or domiciled, in a legal sense, in their territory. The question of Home States’ responsibilities and their jurisdiction over companies involved in human rights abuses abroad is unclear. Nor are companies subject to direct obligations that would be set forth in an international treaty. Compliance with standards that do exist is left to the will and prestige of corporations. Although the Ruggies Principles enjoy broad political support 8 and have also been well received by the business community, civil society and certain states, mainly developing countries, did not give up upon advancing an international biding instrument. Three years after the adoption of the Ruggies Principles, a proposal initiated by Ecuador and South Africa to commence a process of negotiating an international treaty was voted on by the UN Human Rights Council. 9 The proposal did not receive full support and the Resolution was adopted by a vote of 20 to 14, with 13 abstentions. The Czech Republic together with other EU Member States that were at that time members of the Human Rights Council, USA, Japan, and Korea, voted against the Resolution. An open-ended intergovernmental working group was established with a mandate to elaborate “ an international biding instrument on 7 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, as annexed to the report of the Special Representative (A/HRC/17/31) (21 March 2011). See Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other businesses, Johm Ruggie. See Resolution A/HRC/RES/17/4 of 6 July 2011. 8 Based on the Ruggies Principles a number of countries have been recently in the process of implementing their National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights. For example, the government of the Czech Republic approved its first National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights for the period 2017–2022 on 23 October 2017 and became the 19 th country joining this international initiative. Available at < https://www. vlada.cz/cz/ppov/rlp/aktuality/vlada-prijala-prvni-narodni-akcni-plan-pro-byznys-a-lidska-prava-161702>. Visited on 1 June 2020. 9 Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council 26/9 on 26 June 2014, Elaboration of an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights. UN Document A/HRC/RES/26/9.

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