Home States’ Human Rights Regulations on Multinational Enterprises

Abstract

Multinational enterprises are double-edged swords for foreign countries. They bring economic developments to foreign countries, especially developing countries, but they also bring serious human rights damages to foreign countries. Host states are considered as an applicable option to regulate MNEs, since MNEs conduct their activities within host states’ territories. However, host states have some shortcomings of regulating MNEs, which cannot be overcame easily. Even though principles provided for MNEs under the UNGPs and the OECD guidelines are respecting and protecting human rights, these standards don’t have legal enforcement power. Thus, this paper uses regulatory research method to explore the idea of home states’ regulations on MNEs for the avoidance of violating human rights by discussing home states’ obligations to regulate MNEs under international human rights law and institute human rights due diligence initiatives. Human rights due diligence initiatives are effective regulatory mechanisms for home states to mandate MNEs to protect human rights. In the current situation, only a few developed countries like France and Germany adopted similar initiatives. In the future, more countries should implement human rights due diligence initiatives.