Zusammenfassung
This article begins with a discussion of why one should be concerned or at least interested in the human rights conduct of corporations. Hence, the first part of the article presents a couple of historical and current situations which require attention and standard-setting. The second part focuses on past efforts of international law and particularly international human rights law to deal with such nonstate actors as corporations. The third part discusses five major attributes of the U.N. Human Rights Norms which built upon the previous efforts to deal with the human rights conduct of corporations. The fourth part traces the process by which the Norms were prepared and are now being considered by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. The fifth part identifies three principal issues raised by the opponents to the Norms. And the article concludes with an account of how the Norms are already being used by businesses, mutual funds, and others.
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Auszug
Corporate Human Rights Responsibilities
1. Historical and Current Human Rights Concerns as to the Activities of Business
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the initiation of the Nuremberg trials of the Major War Criminals after World War II.1 During the following trials German industrialist Alfried Krupp and nine other officials of the huge Krupp industrial firm were convicted of charges relating, inter alia, to the use of slave labor. During that era the Krupp firm became an inextricable part of the German policy for occupied countries such as France, Norway, and Poland. The Krupp corporate officers received terms of imprisonment with Krupp himself being sentenced to twelve years imprisonment. In addition, all his properties - public and private - were forfeited.2 In a subsequent case 24 directors and officers of the German conglomerate LG. Farben Industry were convicted for, inter alia., slave labor and for designing and producing poison gas used in the concentration camps of the Third Reich.3 Thirteen LG. Farben corporate defendants were found guilty and were sentenced to terms of imprisonment.Looking at a more recent situation of corporate greed and crimes against humanity: In the brutal war in which more than three million lives have been lost over the past seven years in the Democratic Republic of Congo, companies have engaged in forced labor practices reminiscent of World War II.4 The U.N. Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of National Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo identified over 80 companies from developed nations5 that exploited Congolese natural resources during the war. Some of those companies have used forced labor; others have facil...Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes
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