Mind the Corporate Accountability Gap in Transitional Justice: The United Nations business and human rights field and a call for fostering an agenda of corporate accountability for atrocious crimes after violence

• In Event: Power politics and inequality in Colombia: the use of transitional justice mechanisms to bring economic actors to account for their role in past atrocities

Abstract

Recently, academics have shown particular interest in the importance of using transitional justice mechanisms to acknowledge the role of corporate actors involved in atrocities committed during dictatorships or armed conflicts. At the same time, we find a discussion amongst policy makers regarding the implementation of the UN Principles on Business and Human Rights (Ruggie Principles) and the work of special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council regarding particular vulnerable contexts, such as countries that are experiencing armed conflict like Palestine and Colombia. However, there is no consistent analysis on how these academic and policy-oriented debates can complement each other to increase legitimacy of their work among global civil society organizations that pursue corporate accountability in transitional contexts. This paper focuses on how an agenda of accountability of corporate actors can be fostered by an adequate assessment of conflict contexts in the work of the special procedures. And, by doing so, it can make a substantial contribution to the construction of peace, rule of law and transitional justice, on the one side, and to increase legitimacy of these UN bodies among civil society, on the other.

Author

• Daniel Marín López