Human Rights Ltd.: An Alternative Approach to Assessing the Impact of Transnational Corporations on Human Rights

The state has been traditionally considered as the main duty-bearer in relation to human rights given its superior powers and capacities compared to other actors. However, this traditional view has been challenged given that the assumptions under which the current human rights regime emerged have suffered significant transformations in recent decades. It has become recognized that non-state actors may also be allocated some duties in relation to human rights, especially as some of them rival the economic and organizational powers of the state, enabling them to interfere in the realization of human rights but also putting them in a position to protect and fulfill them. This view, along with the apparent inability and unwillingness of some states — for example, quasi-states, failed and weak states — to protect and fulfill the human rights of their populations have contributed to the existence of a perceived ‘governance gap:’ that is, a vacuum in the effective regulation of non-state actors’ activities (Koenig-Archibugi 2004: 235; Macdonald 2011: 549).