https://www.globalresearch.ca/....human-rights-violati
Human Rights Violations by Multinational Corporations: Corruption, Lawlessness and The “Global Value Chain”
Introduction
The debate on human rights violations is invariably limited to those committed by governments and other public institutions.
We seldom discuss human rights violations committed by large corporations, especially multinational corporations (MNCs). Moreover, in many cases, the violation of human rights by host country governments is motivated as a means to cover up MNCs’ human rights abuse.
There is another phenomenon which does not help our resolve to acquire a solution to the issue of corporate human rights abuse; it is the biased attitude of the Western media regarding these corporate violations.
The media seldom report the incidence of corporate human rights violations, most likely due to the fact that they themselves are owned by large corporations.
Public debate on the issues of corporate human rights violations is vitally important not only in relation of global justice but also for the health of the global economy, especially for the survival of the economies of developing countries.
We need also to conduct an ideology-neutral and unbiased debate on the long-run impact of MNCs’ human rights violations on the developing countries.
This article deals with the following issues.
First, this paper will show how large, rich and powerful the MNCs are and how they can easily abuse human rights, damage the environment and destroy the economies of developing countries.
Second, this paper will discuss the types of human rights violated by MNCs. It will be shown that in many cases, the MNC violates both the economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) and the civil and political rights (CPR).
Third, in this section, this paper will discuss how and why the current national and international judiciary regimes are not equipped for dealing effectively human rights violations by MNCs.
Wealth and Power of MNCs
One of the significant phenomena of the last half a century has been the rise of huge global corporations called, multinational corporations (MNCs), which have impacted deeply not only the global economic system but also the global political dynamics.
The financial assets of 200 largest MNCs is larger than the combined assets of all countries of the world excluding 10 largest economies. According to data of the Amnesty International, of 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations, namely MNCs, while 49 are Nation States.
What is more surprising is the fact that, despite their huge size, they grew fast; their profit rose between 1983 and 1999 by 36% as against the profit of the global economy which rose by 25%.
According to UNCTAD data, MNCs account for 70 % of the world trade.
Given the sheer size of MNCs, it is not difficult to imagine the huge impact of their human rights violations on social and economic justice and the well-being of the people.
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