Using Judicial Actions to Address Corporate Human Rights Abuses: Colombia, 2000–2014

Business and Human Rights in Latin America: A Systematic Review of Scholarship

“…In this study, the empirical analysis of data from Colombian courts served to help theorize factors influencing judicial outcomes in corporate accountability cases, with implications beyond the Colombian context, but also evidenced the need to question the 'adequacy of continuing to rely on the state and the companies to implement the […] access to remedy' in light of the 'significant proportion of cases where the state and the company have colluded in the perpetration of the abuse'. 65 In another example, Cantú Rivera analyses the understanding of corporate responsibility to respect that emerges out of recent Mexican case law, highlighting that such 'development of case law on the horizontal application of human rights to corporate activities […] directly contribute to the solidification of standards that are intrinsically compatible with the spirit of the UNGPs'. 66 As Cantú Rivera notes, Latin American cases have 'paved the way for interesting judicial decisions that may at least partially reflect the position of developing countries in relation to the respect of human rights by economic actors'.…”