Reconstructing the global human rights order in pursuit of a binding business human rights treaty in the era of decolonisation

Abstract

The current global human rights order, eminently propagated in international legal instruments and statements, is to a great extent state-centric in character, bestowing obligations on states, whilst largely ignoring the conduct of non-state actors in the form of transnational corporations (TNCs) and trade governance institutions whose record of human rights adherence is scarcely convincing. This inability to aptly govern the conduct of transnational entities, even when it is evident that their power now eclipses that of states, raises the concern that the extant human rights regime is a neoliberal construct advancing market fundamentalism and widening the economic disparities between developed and developing countries. This article unsettles the doctrinal foundations underlying state centrism in international human rights law, arguing that such a version of human rights is exposing developing countries to neoliberal oligarchs, and market deficiencies, which if not reformed, may entrench underdevelopment. It calls for a decolonised human rights regime which impose human rights obligations on the conduct of transnational entities in pursuit of human dignity, equality and freedom.