Global market participation of corporations often leads to a conflict of duties: the duty to its customers and shareholder to “do business” vs. the duty to protect the populations affected by these business operations. Today, in reality where gross human rights violations are not only committed by states and individuals but increasingly by multinational corporations (MNCs) by aiding and abetting the actual perpetrators in the states where MNCs operate, the global recession has aggravated this human rights situation.
A possible answer could lie in the developing notion of corporate responsibility for aiding and abetting human rights violations.
Outline the existing ways of such a form of indirect liability and discuss whether it could play an effective role in human rights protection.