CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: THE NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL BINDING INSTRUMENT

Abstract

The international human rights regime has imposed on the States the responsibility to protect the human rights of those living within their spheres of jurisdiction against infractions by third parties including multinational corporations. There are wanton violations of human rights by multinational corporations bringing into question the effectiveness or otherwise of this approach. This article examined the States’ duty to protect human rights in relation to multinational corporations’ infractions by critically analyzing the human rights regimes of selected States, namely, United States, United Kingdom and Nigeria with the aim of ascertaining the effectiveness or otherwise of their various approaches. The doctrinal research methodology was adopted in collection and analysis of data from primary and secondary sources. The primary sources were national constitutions, statutes and case law while the secondary sources included text books, journal articles, dictionaries, and law reports. Critical and analytical approaches were ready to hand. This article discovered that there are inconsistencies in the domestic jurisdictions in holding multinational corporations liable for human rights violations and that the State parties as instruments have failed to uphold universality of human rights as multinational corporations evade liability for violations of human rights. This article recommended the creation of a new human rights convention and enforcement mechanism in the United Nations level stipulating the human rights obligations of multinational corporations.