The Role of Corporations in International Crimes

• In Event: Mass Atrocity Crimes: Understanding Dynamics, Actions and Actors?

Abstract

Mass atrocities are often enabled, facilitated or exacerbated by the conduct of corporations. Plentiful contemporary cases – in the DRC and Sudan, for instance – spark countless initiatives for transparency, accountability and prevention, and also signal a continuation to the historic roles of corporations in Nazi crimes, South African apartheid, or during the military dictatorship in Argentina. However, whilst the accusations of corporate involvement in international crimes and other gross human rights violations are common and damning, little is known about the etiology of such involvement. This paper aims to set out a theoretical framework to aid empirical study of this complex, multifaceted and often ideologically charged phenomenon. We depart from some of the common grounds between what is known about atrocity crimes on the one hand and corporate wrongdoing on the other. We then turn to existing knowledge on corporate crime to filter out those elements that are most useful for understanding corporate involvement in atrocity crimes. The complexities of the phenomenon warrant a multi-level approach so that the proposed theoretical framework aims to identify the most promising explanatory factors on the institutional, corporate and individual level.

Authors

• Annika van Baar, VU University Amsterdam

• Wim Huisman, VU University Amsterdam