Time for Action: Making Non-State Actors Accountable for their Human Rights Violation

Human rights practitioners have been divided between those who believe and want international human rights law to be binding on non-state actors such as business corporations, rebel groups, NGOs and even individuals on the one hand, and those who reject this approach on the other. While the former category sees international human rights law as evolving and therefore containing or should contain provisions binding these non-state actors, the latter category sees this approach problematic and practically impossible given the current international law structure dominated by states. The consequence of this disagreement has allowed business corporations and rebel groups to go unpunished for their human rights violations. Recent efforts by the United Nations to make business corporations accountable have been criticized for their softness. Also the fight between international human rights and International Humanitarian Law on which field should apply during civil law has made it difficult to make human rights provisions binding on rebel groups. It is time to move from rhetoric to action and hold non-state actors accountable. This will require, however to answer first the question of whether international human rights law is or is not binding on non-state actors. The cost of the status quo is getting heavier and its consequences are creating a precedent that will be difficult to overturn