The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and Ugandas extractive sector

Abstract

Identified as part of a missing forum or governance gap, transnational tort claims on behalf of African plaintiffs against multinational corporations have met barriers in Global North home states where those corporations are headquartered as well as African host states where extractive activities take place. This chapter first examines some challenges that limit the ability for African plaintiffs to seek compensatory remedies in host state courts when their human rights are violated. It then presents three case studies of claims in home state courts where, as a result of doctrinal limitations exacerbated by legislative gaps, tort liability against multinational corporations for human rights violations in African host states has remained tenuous. With barriers prevalent in-home state courts, one avenue to alleviate the missing forum may be to increase demand for otherwise weak tort laws in African host states. Such avenues can be facilitated by African judiciaries first instituting or expanding certain procedural mechanisms and then adopting doctrines either rejected or tepidly endorsed by home states