Due Diligence Obligations In International Human Rights Law

An analytical framework of due diligence obligations to address the increasing prevalence of non-State human rights risks.

With the importance of non-State actors ever increasing, the traditional State-centric approach of international law is being put to the test. In particular, significant accountability lacunae have emerged in the field of human rights protection. To address these challenges, this book makes a case for extraterritorial due diligence obligations of States in international human rights law. It traces back how due diligence obligations evolved on the international plane and develops a general analytical framework making the broad and vague notion of due diligence more approachable. The framework is applied to different fields of international law which provides guidance on how due diligence obligations can be better conceptualized. Drawing inspiration from these developments, the book analyses how extraterritorial human rights due diligence obligations could operate in practice and foster global human rights protection.

"There has been much debate in recent years about the role of non-state actors in international law. Whereas their presence is undisputedly acknowledged, their status and legal accountability remains unsettled. In many areas of public international law, harm is now significantly often caused by actors other than states.1 Terrorist groups threaten the territorial integrity of states; private security companies are involved in armed conflicts; individual hackers initiate cyber-attacks; and multinational corporations cause transboundary environmental harm or business-related human rights violations. Nonetheless, international treaties and customary international law still assign rights and duties almost exclusively to states. Outside of international criminal law, there are but few attempts to establish individual responsibility. On the other hand, state responsibility only arises if an international obligation is breached and that breach is attributable to a state whereas only the actions of state organs acting in their official capacity may implicate state responsibility and the conduct of private individuals usually does not. Such conduct may be attributed if private citizens act as so-called de facto organs or a state acknowledges their behavior as its own - which occurs rather rarely. The nature of state responsibility is inherently restorative with the primary objective to maintain or restore an equilibrium between equal and sovereign states"--

This book discusses the conceptual foundations of due diligence obligations and their normative function in the law of international responsibility.

Due Diligence in International Law is the first ever international law monograph on the missing link between state responsibility and international liability that is the international law principle of due diligence, ensuring international cooperation, cybersecurity and preventing significant transboundary harm.

The Oxford Handbook of International Human Rights Law provides a comprehensive and original overview of one of the fundamental topics within international law. It contains substantial new essays by more than forty leading experts in the field, giving students, scholars, and practitioners a complete overview of the issues that inform research, as well as a 'map' of the debates that animate the field. Each chapter features a critical and up-to-date analysis of the current state of debate and discussion, assessing recent work and advancing the understanding of all aspects of this developing area of international law. The Handbook consists of 39 chapters, divided into seven parts. Parts I and II explore the foundational theories and the historical antecedents of human rights law from a diverse set of disciplines, including the philosophical, religious, biological, and psychological origins of moral development and altruism, and sociological findings about cooperation and conflict. Part III focuses on the law-making process and categories of rights. Parts IV and V examine the normative and institutional evolution of human rights, and discuss this impact on various doctrines of general international law. The final two parts are more speculative, examining whether there is an advantage to considering major social problems from a human rights perspective and, if so, how that might be done: Part VI analyses current problems that are being addressed by governments, both domestically and through international organizations, and issues that have been placed on the human rights agenda of the United Nations, such as state responsibility for human rights violations and economic sanctions to enforce human rights; Part VII then evaluates the impact of international human rights law over the past six decades from a variety of perspectives. The Handbook is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, and practitioners of international human rights law. It provides the reader with new perspectives on international human rights law that are both multidisciplinary and geographically and culturally diverse.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the content, scope, and function of due diligence across various areas of international law. Looking at current tendancies towards proceduralisation and more proactive risk management, it reveals the promises and limits of due diligence as a concept for enhancing accountability and compliance.

This perceptive book analyzes the scope of the duty to prevent genocide of China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US in light of the due diligence standard under conventional, customary, and peremptory international law. It expounds the positive obligations of these five states to act both within and without the Security Council context to prevent or suppress an imminent or ongoing genocide.