The Duty to Protect against Human Rights Violations Committed Abroad by Transnational Companies and their Subsidiaries

Human rights violations committed by Transnational Companies (TNC¡¯s) in developing countries have been broadly reported by NGOs the last years. Normally, each State should ensure the protection of the victims of those violations by providing them an appropriate and effective remedy. However, it appears that States where the violations are committed are sometimes not willing or are not able to fulfill their duty. Nevertheless, TNC¡¯s are often based in Western countries. This paper aims to investigate through the liability of so called ¡°home countries¡± for allowing the TNC¡¯s based on their own territory to commit human rights violations abroad. One of the key issues will be the analysis of the extraterritorial aspect of the duty to protect resulting from the two Covenants of 1966 and the ECHR. The questions to be answered are whether and to which extend States have to control their TNC¡¯s and to provide an appropriate and effective remedy to their victims.