• • • • • • • • • • • 1.3. 2.1. 2.2. 2.3. 2.4. 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.3. 5. 6.1. Application of existing rights Review of Domestic Regulation Development of Domestic Regulatory Regimes Court and Tribunals Participatory rights Domestic Implementation Issues affecting Implementation Environmental Impact Assessment Mobilising all Stakeholders Displaced persons Millennium Development Goals Obligations of Non-State Actors Question 5: Do international legal instruments, or international customary law, impose obligations on nonState actors to protect human rights – the ACJ is asked to consider what mechanisms exist to address such violations Response Non-state actors are under an obligation ‘to respect’ (rather than protect) international human rights law and international humanitarian law. 81 Non-state actors rarely have any direct responsibility under international law because these obligations are generally imposed directly on states. Despite the longstanding recognition of the role that corporations can and do play in the realisation of human rights, international law does not yet directly impose obligations on corporations for the protection of human rights. This situation poses a number of difficulties for the effective promotion and protection of human rights where they may be undermined by the actions of corporations, and where the State has failed to fulfil its responsibility to effectively regulate, and provide remedies in relation to violations by, non-state actors. More recently, the international community has sought to encourage respect for human rights by non-State actors through the development of voluntary guidelines and industry codes. Background There have been some international statements and declarations attempting to impose liability for human rights violations on private actors. For example, art 18 of the UN General Assembly Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms states that individuals, groups, institutions and NGOs have a responsibility to promote the right of everyone to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights instruments can be fully realised. Whilst this Declaration does not specifically articulate a binding obligation on corporations to respect or protect human rights, it does call on them to respect those rights. 82 In some cases, the UN Security Council has taken measures against non-state actors in regard to human rights violations, including through the imposition of criminal sanctions. Individual 81 82 Ref. preambular paragraph 8 to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Asia Pacific Forum, above n 4, 74. Ibid. - 24 -