West Virginia University College of Law Professor Jena Martin recently presented a work-in-progress as part of the Business & Human Righst Workshop Series hosted by University of Connecticut Human Rights Institute. With her co-author, Dr. Rachel Chambers, Professor Martin discussed a new paper titled "A Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for Human Rights". The workshop was held virtually on March 18, 2021.
From the abstract:
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The global movement towards the adoption of human rights due diligence laws is gaining momentum. Starting in France, moving to the Netherlands, and now at the European Union level, lawmakers across Europe are accepting the need to legislate to require that companies conduct human rights due diligence throughout their global operations. The situation in the United States is very different: on the federal level there is currently no law that mandates corporate human rights due diligence. Civil society organization International Corporate Accountability Roundtable is stepping into the breach with a legislative proposal building on the model of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to prohibit corporations from engaging in grave human rights violations and to give the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice the power to investigate any alleged violations. Our paper discusses this proposal.