Governance Gaps

April 22, 2008 by Jay Taber.

60 years into the UN human rights regime, the Human Rights Council has issued a report on the “governance gaps” in addressing corporate liability for international crimes. In the Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issues of human rights and transnational corporations, the HRC rapporteur — while noting widespread corporate complicity in human rights abuses — asserts the bedrock role of states in redressing them.

Not to belittle the responsibility and power of states to accomplish this duty under the UN charter, but the bedrock role lies with indigenous nations and their civil society allies. Reining in corporate as well as state actors requires we recognize and act on this reality.

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