Human Rights and Corporate Accountability

The ACJ is a specialist advisory body that provides, on request, comments, opinions and advice on the interpretation and application of relevant international human rights standards, having regard to settled principles of international law and treaty obligations. ACJ mandate

Selecting references Child pornography on the internet (Philippines, 1999) Death penalty (Philippines, 1999) Trafficking (Sri Lanka, 2001) Terrorism and the rule of law (India, 2002) Torture (Mongolia, 2005) Education (Mongolia, 2005) Environment (Fiji, 2006) Corporate Accountability and Government Responsibility (Malaysia, 2008) Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (2010)

Review of the ACJ A review of the ACJ was conducted in 2007 and 2008 introduced a series of reforms, including: Changes to process by which references are determined A renewed focus on filling normative gaps o Does the proposed topic raise issues of fundamental human rights or treaty obligations? o Does the proposed topic raise a current or emerging issue in the region? o Is the proposed topic directly relevant to the role and functions of member institutions and does it lend itself to practical application?

Corporate Accountability The ACJ was asked to consider the following key questions: what is the basis for attributing human rights responsibilities to transnational corporations under international human rights law? what are the obligations of a State to regulate transnational corporations with regard to human rights violations occurring both within and outside its territorial jurisdiction? how useful is the concept of corporate complicity in international crimes to protect human rights?; and what jurisdictional barriers exist in enforcing human rights obligations against corporations?

Recommendations Monitoring Advocacy Education Complaint handling

Developments ICC Working Group on Human Rights and Business (2009) Edinburgh Declaration (2010) UN Guiding Principles (2011) APF Regional Conference (2011) International Conference in Mongolia (2012) UN Forum on Business and Human Rights (2012) ICC Guidebook on Business on Human Rights (2013)

Implementation Opinions or views expressed by the Council to the Forum are only advisory. The Council’s views may contain recommendations or suggestions as to how they might be implemented but the Council cannot instruct the Forum or Member institutions on their activities or require them to take any particular actions.

Implementation Civil society actions: 1.Demonstrate the relevance of business/corporate accountability and human rights to the mandate and context of your institution 2.Examine whether business/corporate accountability is already incorporated into the NHRI’s strategic plan or whether elements of the plan cover it 3.Bring a tailored approach by identifying a handful of key/priority recommendations, potentially as applied to a specific industry sector 4.Updating of the ACJ Reference to take account of developments 5.Address reference implementation in future ANNI reports.

Implementation APF actions: 1.Developing a monitoring and assessment tool for APF members 1.Encourage other APF members to host conferences like Mongolia, dedicated to specific business/corporate accountability issues in their countries 1.Audit of APF training programs to mainstream business/corporate accountability considerations through them.