Abstract

Corporations investing in resource-rich, conflict-ridden and weakly governed African states face the risk of becoming involved in human rights violations perpetrated by their business partners. The aim of this presentation is to analyze the legal consequences of corporate complicity in human rights violations from the point of view of international human rights law and domestic civil law (with a focus on legislation from the United States). In doing so, it seeks to answer two questions that are often confused in the business/human rights debate: firstly, whether corporations should be held liable for complicity in human rights violations; and secondly, whether they can be held liable for such conduct. The presentation also analyses the role that Corporate Social Responsibility programs and other initiatives are playing in regulating the relationship between human rights and corporations.

Miss Vuyelwa Kuuya is a Research Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. She is also a Research Associate of the First Africa Group (now part of the Standard Chartered Bank Group). She works on the Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Violations project which is based at the LCIL . Vuyelwa is also a Research Associate of the Centre for Sustainable Development Law, McGill University and has prior experience working in the corporate and commercial practices of law firms in London, South Africa and Zimbabwe.