A Poisonous Mix - Human Rights Watch

Trafficking in persons is prohibited under international law. 70 Having a slightly broader
scope than trafficking in adults, trafficking in children is defined as “the recruitment,
transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation.” 71
Exploitation includes “at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other
forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery,
servitude, or the removal of organs.” 72 Trafficking of children is also classified as a worst
form of child labor. 73
International Human Rights Obligations of Businesses
Although governments have the primary responsibility for promoting and ensuring respect
for human rights, private entities such as companies have human rights responsibilities as
well. This basic principle has achieved wide international recognition and is reflected in
international norms, most recently with the adoption of the Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011. 74
The Guiding Principles were elaborated by John Ruggie, former United Nations’ special
representative of the secretary general on the issue of human rights and transnational
corporations and other business enterprises. The Principles lack guidance with regards to
government regulation of companies’ human rights impacts and have failed to call for
mandatory monitoring and reporting of companies’ human rights impacts. Nonetheless,
they serve as a useful guide to many of the human rights obligations of businesses and of
the governments that oversee their activities. The Principles place particular emphasis on
the concept of human rights due diligence—the idea that companies must have a process
to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for their impact on human rights. According to
the Guiding Principles, corporations should monitor their impact on an ongoing basis and
have processes in place that enable the remediation of adverse human rights impacts they
cause or to which they contribute. 75
70 Trafficking Protocol, art. 2; CRC, African Charter on the Rights and the Wellbeing of the Child, art. 29.
71 Trafficking Protocol, art. 3(c).
72 Trafficking Protocol, art. 3(a).
73 Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, art. 3(a).
74 United Nations Human Rights Council, “Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of
human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, John Ruggie: Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework,” A/HRC/17/31, March 21,
2011, http://www.ohchr.org/documents/issues/business/A.HRC.17.31.pdf (accessed August 11, 2011), principle 12. There is,
however, as yet no shared understanding of the full scope of businesses’ human rights responsibilities, whether these are or
should be binding under international law, and if so, how they can best be enforced.
75 Ibid., principles 15-24.
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