With Corporate Rights Come Corporate Responsibilities

By Sam Willie 

Salil Shetty, Secretary General of Amnesty International, has published a piece in the Guardian, arguing for the creation of a binding international treaty on corporate human rights responsibilities. Shetty believes in building upon the success of the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights published in 2011 by making key provisions of the Principles mandatory and requiring corporations to fulfill a duty to protect people against human rights abuses. Shetty cites Shell’s oil spills in the Niger Delta, as an example of an event which may have been avoided had a provision requiring corporate human rights due diligence been reinforced in a binding treaty.