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the risk of environmental harm to other States.331 This rule is equally applicable in the
context of human rights and has been widely discussed and relied on by the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights to explain jurisdiction in matters involving cross-border damages.
Indeed, it advances that States have a general obligation to ensure that activities within
their territory do not cause damage to the environment of another State and relates this
concept to the general duty of States to protect human rights. It logically follows that
States are obliged to act if activities in their territory cause serious human rights violations
in the territory of another State.332
The Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Responsibilities of States in the Field of
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (“Maastricht Principles”)333 address any potential
confusion regarding a State’s extraterritorial jurisdiction. The Maastricht Principles are
based on two main concepts that serve as primary guides in extraterritorial human rights
obligations. These are:
1. That international human rights law requires that States must ensure
that they respect, protect, and fulfill rights when conducting themselves
in a way that has real and foreseeable effects on human rights beyond
borders;334 and
2. That international law, particularly in economic, social, and cultural
rights, demands States to realize rights extraterritorially through
“international assistance and cooperation.335
Finding its basis on varied sources of international human rights law336 and evolving
international human rights jurisprudence recognizing exceptions to the territoriality
aspect of jurisdiction under international law,337 the Maastricht Principles provide that a
331
Ian Brownlie in Principles of Public International Law, 7th ed., 2008, pp.275-285; Patricia Birnie,
Alan Boyle and Catherine Redgwell in: International Law and the Environment, 3rd ed., Oxford
2009, pp.143-152 (citing
332
Krajewski (2018), supra note 310.
333
ETO Consortium, Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area
of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2013), available at https://www.etoconsortium.org/
nc/en/main-navigation/library/maastricht-principles/?tx_drblob_pi1%5BdownloadUid%5D=23
[hereinafter Maastricht Principles].
334
Margot E. Salomon & Ian Seiderman, Human Rights Norms for a Globalized World: The Maastricht
Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights, 3 Glob. Policy 458 (2012) [hereinafter Salomon & Seiderman (2012)].
335
Id.
336
Maastricht Principles, supra note 333 (General Principle No. 6).
337
Salomon & Seiderman (2012), supra note 332.
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