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37 J. Marshall L. Rev. 1205 (2003-2004)
United Nations Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights: The International Community Asserts Binding Law on the Global Rule Makers

handle is hein.journals/jmlr37 and id is 1225 raw text is: UNITED NATIONS NORMS ON THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS AND OTHER BUSINESS ENTERPRISES WITH REGARD TO HUMAN RIGHTS: THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY ASSERTS BINDING LAW ON THE GLOBAL RULE MAKERS JULIE CAMPAGNA* I. SUMMARY Last August, the United Nations (UN) issued legally binding draft Norms obligating transnational corporations and other business entities to respect, protect and fulfill human rights within their respective spheres. The international business community objects to the Norms and claims that compliance with international human rights law should be by choice and only applicable to the extent it desires. Moreover, the community asserts that nation states, not the UN, should enforce human rights. It is wrong on all accounts. Legally, human beings hold their rights not as citizens or subjects of nation states, but as members of society. Despite the legal duty to respect, protect and fulfill the intertwined and interdependent economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights of their citizens, many nations breach this duty. Moreover, many of these countries perpetrate human rights violations themselves. Other countries are so impoverished, or war-torn, or both, to claim supervening impossibility of performance. Sovereignty, the indispensable object for executing their duties, has vanished. The international society of states delegated the task of international human rights supervision to the UN in the Charter. B.A., Spanish, 1982, Mundelein College, Chicago. M.A. French, 1984, University of Illinois. J.D., 2003, Chicago Kent College of Law. LL.M. Candidate, International Business and Trade Law. Member of the International Law Section of the ABA and the American Society of International Law. The author would like to dedicate this article, in gratitude, to her three superb international law professors: Professor Michael Avramovich of The John Marshall Law School, Professor John Strzynzski of Chicago Kent, and Professor Peter Orebech of the University of Tromoso. 1205

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