Treaty tantrums: Past, present and future of a business and human rights treaty
| Author | Surya Deva |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/09240519221118706 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Column |
Treaty tantrums: Past, present
and future of a business and
human rights treaty
Surya Deva
Macquarie Law School, Sydney, Australia
Abstract
This column analyses the current process in the UN Human Rights Council to negotiate an inter-
national legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of
transnational corporations and other business enterprises. It does so in the context of two pre-
vious attempts at the UN level to adopt binding rules for (multinational) corporations and the
continued inability of international soft standards as well as hard rules at the national level in
States in ensuring that businesses take their human rights responsib ilities seriously. It is argued
that an international treaty is desirable as part of a regulatory ecosystem to promote respect of
human rights by business enterprises and to strengthen corporate accountability for human
rights abuses. While the treaty should build on and complement the existing international
soft standards, it should also try to fill some of the regulatory gaps that these standards
mightnoteverbeabletofill.
Keywords
Business and human rights, complementarity, treaty, UN Code of Conduct, UN Draft Norms,
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
1. INTRODUCTION
Business and human rights (BHR) as a term as well as the evolution of BHR as a specialised field
is relatively new. However, the involvement of business enterprises in exploiting people or
natural resources is much older.
1
Even theoretical discussions about the role of business in
Corresponding author:
Surya Deva, Macquarie Law School, Sydney, NSW, 2109, Australia.
E-mail: surya.deva@mq.edu.au
1. See William Dalrymple, The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence and the Pillage of an Empire
(Bloomsbury Publishing 2019).
Column
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights
2022, Vol. 40(3) 211–221
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/09240519221118706
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