Accountability, human rights and the responsibilities of the tobacco industry

Abstract

The tobacco industry is notorious for side-stepping human rights responsibilities, regardless of its substantial (negative) impact on the enjoyment of various human rights. The industry, consisting primarily of business enterprises, is considered under international law to be a non-State actor. Consequently, it has no binding international human rights law obligations and is not subject to any binding human rights enforcement mechanisms. Debate regarding the (lack of) human rights accountability of business enterprises has been abundant in recent years and several initiatives and mechanisms have been developed to try to hold businesses responsible at the international level for interfering with the enjoyment of human rights. This chapter critically examines the current international human rights accountability of the tobacco industry. The chapter first provides the definition of accountability used throughout the chapter (Section 2). The position of the tobacco industry under international human rights law is then addressed, examining both binding and non-binding tools that have been developed to hold business enterprises more generally, and the tobacco industry more specifically, accountable for their harmful conduct vis-à-vis human rights (Section 3). Section 4 comprises a critical analysis of the (human rights) judicial and quasi-judicial accountability mechanisms to which the tobacco industry is currently subject. Concluding remarks are provided in Section 5.