Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses and Natural Resources Governance: A Study in Global Law,Development and Justice

This event has ended.

The constant drive for profits and wealth maximization largely explains why corporations commit human rights abuses especially in developing countries with lax environmental, tax and labour laws and standards. The ‘resource curse’ phenomenon is well known to many developing countries in particular in least developed countries rich in mineral, energy and other natural resources where many multinational extractive groups operate. Simultaneously, there is a well developed body of international and regional human rights norms recognizing a human right to a ‘clean’ or ‘healthy’ environment; as well as economic, cultural and social rights to all ‘peoples’ including their right to freely dispose of their natural wealth, resources and the indigenous peoples’ rights to land. Worryingly, illegal exploitation of natural resources and large-scale land grabbing is widespread in many countries, as has been widely documented in the case of a Cambodian government policy of forced evictions and land reallocations from the early 2000s with the collaboration of powerful multinational corporations.  
This two-day conference will aim to critically examine the role played by international, regional and national institutions in holding corporations (in particular multinational corporations) effectively accountable for violations of human rights law in light of the imperatives of social and ecological justice and inter-generational equity. The discussions will be contextualized with case studies in natural resources governance in selected countries and regions, in particular Africa, Asia and Latin America. The conference will also aim to propose a global legal framework for the liability of and law enforcement against corporate groups and their directors, employees, managers ands shareholders for human rights abuses, taking account of the existing initiatives and human rights standards such as the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the work of the former UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie and the UN Draft Business & Human Rights Treaty.

The conference is organised by Cardiff University, Centre for Human Rights and Public Law, and is partly sponsored by the Learned Society for Wales