Challenging Corporate Power: Human Rights Globalization from Above and Below

Abstract

To address the most pressing issues of our day, the United Nations must be redesigned to transform global social relations in ways that reduce corporate power and empower civil society and local authorities as global actors. People's movements have made deliberate efforts to advance what I have called human rights globalization, building foundations for an alternative global order from the ground up. These emerging transformative projects can end corporate impunity and foster global norms and identities that contest corporate governance and the monopoly authority of states.

The responsibility of corporate actors involved in international crimes through autonomous weapons systems (AWS) before the international criminal court (ICC)

“…It is clear that no one can ignore that the programs, the designers, and the manufacturers that substitute human decision-making on the battlefield have become the 'corporate power' (Smith, 2021). Therefore, it is imperative to regulate how corporations may be held accountable when their activity results in violations of IHL in order to prevent the accountability gap from widening further.…”

Taking on the Corporate Determinants of Ill-health and Health Inequity: A Scoping Review of Actions to Address Excessive Corporate Power to Protect and Promote the Public’s Health

“…The review identified several studies in which it was noted that corporate due diligence laws have the potential to regulate the corporate pursuit of stakeholder value through requiring corporate directors to identify and mitigate actual and potential adverse social and environmental impacts related to their decisions. 130,[166][167][168][169][170][171] A number of countries, such as Germany and France, have implemented corporate due diligence laws with respect to human rights, with France also expanding such laws to encompass environmental harms. 130,172 In a recent development, the European Commission set out a proposal in early 2022 for a new directive on corporate sustainability due diligence, which would, in principle, legally hold directors of large European Union-based corporations to account for the adverse human rights, climate change and environmental consequences of their decisions.…”

“…130 Many scholars have argued that an important way to safeguard the rights and interests of citizens around the world from corporate violations is to subject transnational corporations to a legally binding international instrument on human rights. [168][169][170][171][173][174][175][176][177] Drafted in 2003, the 'Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regards to Human Rights' (the Norms) provides an example of such an instrument, although this was ultimately rejected by the UN Commission on Human Rights. 166,178 One innovative proposal identified during the review largely based on the principle of 'restorative justice' involved requiring all corporations above a certain size to prepare and continuously improve a 'justice plan, ' referring to a plan developed via a deliberative process between corporate decision-makers and stakeholders to determine what must be done to prevent and repair injustices caused by the corporation.…”

“…We identified a number of proposals relating to reforming existing international organisations and arrangements to shift decision-making power from powerful states and their corporations back to elected governments and civil societies. 1,169,[190][191][192][193] Chimni, for example, proposes a suite of measures, including assigning a greater role to national parliaments in the negotiation and ratification of WTO agreements to ensure that the consent of the representatives of citizens in the respective country, where relevant, is adequately sought. 190 To initiate such a measure, it was suggested that national parliaments could pass a law requiring consultation and consent as a precondition for ratification of any significant international agreement, including but not limited to those related to trade and investment.…”