• Business and human rights

Business and human rights

This paper evaluates the private sector’s role in the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC). It identifies four sub-sectors habitually associated with CSEC:

• travel and tourism – an industry that has taken the lead in confronting the problem and developing innovative strategies to combat it
• media industries – although some positive initiatives noted, there is consensus that not enough has been done to protect children from the harms associated with these trades
• new technologies - the internet has assisted child advocates get their positive message across effectively and efficiently, but has also helped those who violate the rights of children accomplish their abuse
• the financial alliance - financial partners have begun to organise and direct their technical knowledge and expertise to combating the commercial trade of child abuse images, through credit card, bank draft and other monetary transactions

The paper examines each sub-sector, identifying the individuals and groups involved and their efforts in eliminating CSEC or, in some cases, perpetuating it. It focuses on “best practices” and “lessons learned”, in particular, the use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) tools to reduce the incidence of commercial sexual exploitation of children.

The paper finds that internal and external CSR tools have increased in popularity, in turn placing greater pressure upon intergovernmental organisations, international agencies and world states to acknowledge the abuses and develop regimes towards ensuring prevention, protection and punitive consequences for multinational corporations (MNCs) that harm children.

The paper notes that global standards and norms, referred to as international “soft” law, have been criticised as being ineffective due to their voluntary and self-policing nature. It highlights a new trend, the attempt to hold the private sector accountable by treating alleged violations of international “hard” law (including the Convention on the Rights of the Child - CRC and its Optional Protocols) as actionable, in the same way that human rights violations committed by a state are actionable in some domestic courts of law. This may give rise to jurisdictional obstacles, and the paper recommends a new paradigm or model that addresses:

• the inadequacy of corporate codes of conduct in controlling the behaviour of MNCs, due to ineffective means of monitoring and enforcement
• the limited scope of actionable human rights claims against MNCs recognised by customary international law and jus cogens norms
• thechallenges before the court in establishing personal jurisdiction over an MNC defendant in light of forum non conveniens.

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