Business and Human Rights
With the UN Guiding Principles, greater attention has been paid to the role of business in the violation of human rights. This project has developed a database of claims by victims of such violations in Latin America using the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre archive. It aims to track those claims and to assess when they have ended in some remedy for victims. It pays particular attention to the role of the state, domestic and transnational social movement, and the type and policy of companies in explaining remedy. A subset of this project develops a database of judicial (civil and criminal, domestic and foreign) and nonjudicial (truth commission) claims of corporate complicity in human rights violations in dictatorships and civil conflict. The project has been funded by the ESRC, John Fell Fund, British Academy & Leverhume Trust, and University of Denver Daniels School of Business. MPhil and DPhilstudents as well as a Post-Doctoral research assistant have worked on the project. It involves collaboration with the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, CELS and ANDHES in Argentina, Dejusticia in Colombia, and the University of Denver. PI: Leigh Payne