AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights in the Extractive Industries: A Case Study of a Non-State Initiative in Niger

by Célia Brunner




Institution: Roskilde University
Department:
Year: 2015
Keywords: Business and Human rights; Extractive Industry; Niger
Record ID: 1120318
Full text PDF: http://rudar.ruc.dk/handle/1800/23092


Abstract

The responsibility of corporations to respect human rights in their daily activities was clarified for the first time in 2011, by the United Nations, through the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP). Through a case study, this study explores the role of non-state actors in the process of embedding the new norm of corporate responsibility to respecting human rights developed by the UNGP in a local context: the extractive industry in Niger. It develops an argument based on the concepts of 'reflexive law' and 'system theory', advanced by Karin Buhmann. With a combination of primary and secondary data, this paper describes the procedure developed by a non-state initiative to promote the recognition of the norm of corporate responsibility for human rights in the private sphere, in a country lacking traditional enforcement mechanisms, and how this process may encourage future self-regulatory measures. The present paper supports the effectiveness of the procedure developed by non-state actors in promoting the recognition of the normative framework in the extractive industry in Niger. However, recognition varied depending on the willingness of corporations to fulfil the expectations addressed by the non-state actors.