March/April 2006 - busy times for Business and Human Rights

Thanks to my colleague Nicolas Jondet and to the ever useful Business & Human Rights Resource Centre for details of the First draft Interim report of the UN Special Representative on Human Rights and Business, and the, inevitably, mixed reaction to it.

The BHRRC site provided a full set of links. Key themes are the need for further research, including through the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights; the question of the precise responsibilities of states and corporations in respect of protecting human rights, and the relationships between them; the legal status of the UN Business Norms and their possible future roles; the need for clearer standards which are to be met by business and clearer tools by which this is to be done and monitored; and the need for some form of compulsory initiatives (whatever they may be, given the legal uncertainties as to the human rights responsibilities of corporations, and in imposing obligations on them under international law.)

No new issues seem to be raised - nor solutions proposed. However, there is a broad engagement, generally constructive, with the project from all sides. If this continues, the report in 2007 is awaited with interest. In particular, we look forward to suggestions and proposals which may be relevant to conduct of IP owners with a direct (or more controversially indirect) impact on the human rights of others - the rights to life (health?) of patients, the rights to information and expression, and to share in the benefits of science and culture.