Conclusion: The Past, the Present and the Future of Accountability of Corporate Complicity in Gross Human Rights Violations

Abstract

The concluding chapter draws out the volume’s main contributions and considers the future of accountability for economic actors’ human rights violations. The contributions include the volume’s recognition of a diverse set of economic actors who have been involved in a range of human rights violations in the past authoritarian and armed conflict situations and that continue to the present. The volume shows that impunity is the norm despite the grave and widespread nature of these violations. Yet, the volume highlights – using the Archimedes’ Lever framework -- exceptional cases of accountability in the global south. Some of these innovations could be adapted to future contexts, especially land restitution in Colombia, peoples’ tribunals in South Africa, shareholders’ initiatives in the Brazilian Volkswagen case, the international expert group in Honduras, and asset recovery in the Philippines. The chapter, however, cautions against overlooking certain critical features for moving forward toward accountability. In particular, economic actors are sometimes themselves victims of human rights abuses, as in Argentina, or they may operate in a grey zone of victim-perpetrator as in Colombia. The chapter also considers certain incentives and international initiatives that could enhance human rights cultures within business communities around the world.