the regulation of corporations, international human rights treaty bodies monitoring
implementation of treaties on civil and political rights,31 economic, social and cultural rights,32
the rights of the child,33 and on racial discrimination34 have all confirmed that States must take
necessary measures to prevent their corporations from interfering with the enjoyment of human
rights both within their territory and in other countries.35
There is also ample justification for any State to act on transboundary matters like climate
change, where harmful activity is taking place in one country, and the negative impacts are being
suffered in another. According to the 2011 OHCHR report on human rights and the environment,
“[o]ne country’s pollution can become another country’s environmental and human rights
problem, particularly where the polluting media, like air and water, are capable of easily crossing
boundaries.”36 These issues are of particular importance in the environmental context, in the light
Working Group on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights,
A/HRC/WG.16/1/NGO/3, July 2, 2015, at 14. Available at:
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/WGTransCorp/Session1/A.HRC.WG.16.1.NGO.3.pdf.
31
United Nations Human Rights Committee, Concluding Observations on the Sixth Periodic Report of Germany,
106th Session, November 12, 2012, ¶ 16. Available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/DEU/CO/6&Lang=En.
32
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Statement on the Obligations of States
Parties Regarding the Corproate Sector and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Forty-Sixth Session, May 20,
2011 at para. 5-6. Available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/docs/E.C.12.2011.1-ENG.doc; United
Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Culutral Rights, General Comment 14: The Right to the Highest
Attainable Standard of Health, Twenty-Second Session, Aug. 11, 2000, at ¶ 39. Available at
http://www.nesri.org/sites/default/files/Right_to_health_Comment_14.pdf;. United Nations Committee on
Economic, Social, and Culutral Rights, General Comment 15: The Right to Water, Twenty-Ninth Session, Jan. 20,
2003, ¶ 33. Available at http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/a5458d1d1bbd713fc1256cc400389e94; United Nations
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding Observations: Finland, December 17, 2014, at ¶
10. Available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E/C.12/FIN/CO/6&Lang=En;
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Concluding Obesrvations on the Second
Periodic Report of China, Including Hong Kong, China, and Macao, China, June 13, 2014, at ¶ 13. Available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2FC.12%2FCHN%2FCO%2
F2.
33
United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment 16: On State Obligations Regarding the
Impact of the Business Sector on Children’s Rights, Apr. 17, 2013, at ¶¶ 43-46. Available at
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/crc/docs/GC/CRC-C-GC-16_en.doc [hereinafter General Comment 16].
34
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Concluding Observations: United States
of America, Session 72, Feb. 2008, at para. 30. Available at
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/CERDConcludingComments2008.pdf; United Nations Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Concluding Observations: Canada, Session 17, May 25, 2007, at ¶ 17.
Available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.CAN.CO.18.doc; United Nations Committee
on the Elimination of Racial Discrimimation, Concluding Observations: Canada, Eighteenth Session, Apr. 4, 2012,
at ¶ 14; United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Concluding Observations: Norway,
Seventy-Eighth Session, April 8, 2011, at ¶ 17. Available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CERD/C/NOR/CO/1920&Lang=En; United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimimation, Concluding Observations:
United Kingdom, Seventy-Ninth Session, Sept. 14, 2011, at ¶ 29. Available at
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CERD/C/GBR/CO/1820&Lang=En.
35
See further O. de Schutter & A. Eide & A. Khalfan & M. Orellana & M. Salomon & I. Seiderman, Commentary to
the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights, 34 HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY, 1084, 1133-1145 (2012). Available at: http://www.icj.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/12/HRQMaastricht-Maastricht-Principles-on-ETO.pdf [hereinafter Maastricht Commentary].
36
Human Rights Council, Analytical Study on the Relationship Between Human Rights and the Environment,
Nineteenth Session, Dec. 16, 2011 at ¶ 65. Available at
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/A-HRC-19-34_en.pdf.
10