International Responsibility of Business for Violation of Human Rights – Customers’ Perspective

Abstract

This paper deals with possible avenues for enforcement liability of human rights violations that occur in less industrially developed countries. Since food, clothing and other economic goods are often produced in states where the rule of law may not be as effective as elsewhere, it is difficult to both establish and remedy the human rights violations that are frequently seen to occur in such states. Therefore, the paper analyses whether it would be possible to remedy human rights violations from abroad, in other words from within those states where these products are sold to end-users. The paper focuses on selected instruments of international, European and national law in order to establish whether a remedy for such violations is present. It takes the bottom-up principle, i.e. it concentrates on such instruments which might be used by individuals, consumers in particular, rather than by states. The outcome of the contrib ution is that, in theory, it is possible to hold retailers partially liable for human rights violations as a means of applying remote leverage on the manufacturers.