McBeth, Adam --- "Human Rights in Economic Globalisation" [2010] ELECD 195; in Joseph, Sarah; McBeth, Adam (eds), "Research Handbook on International Human Rights Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Research Handbook on International Human Rights Law

Editor(s): Joseph, Sarah; McBeth, Adam

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203687

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Human Rights in Economic Globalisation

Author(s): McBeth, Adam

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

6. Human rights in economic globalisation
Adam McBeth



1 Introduction
In Chapter 4 of this volume, Robert McCorquodale gives an overview of the
evolving position of international human rights law in terms of the responsi-
bilities of entities other than states. McCorquodale highlights the problems of
a system that was conceived on the assumption that states can and do control
the activities of entities operating within their respective territories, and which
therefore freely ignores the actions of non-state actors in seeking to ensure the
protection and promotion of human rights and to prevent and punish human
rights violations.
Nowhere is the fallacy of that assumption more apparent than in the context
of economic globalisation. In today's globalised economy, there are many
different types of entity that are capable of operating across borders and tran-
scend the regulatory capacity of any one state. Many of those entities, such as
multinational corporations, international financial institutions and develop-
ment banks, engage in activities that can have profound effects, both positive
and negative, on human rights.
Corporations, for example, have an obvious and direct potential to impact
labour rights, both positively and negatively, through the way in which they
treat their workers, including the provision or denial of reasonable rates of
pay, reasonable conditions of work, a safe and healthy workplace, non-
discrimination, freedom of association and the right to organise. They can also
have profound effects on the human rights of the communities in which they
operate, for instance in the ...