Malin Jönsson

It is evident that there is a lack of effective and appropriate redress for assuring the provision of justice for human rights (HRs) violations committed by EU corporations in non EU countries. After participating in the training session I got aware of several cases, which I have not heard of before, and their impact on the victims living in the concerned countries. National courts in theory have the ability to provide these victims appropriate redress, but in practise many obstacles appear. Frequently the national courts have to dismiss the proceedings due to lack of jurisdiction or adequate procedural rules. Other circumstances such as current armed conflicts, corruption and lack of resources have huge impact on the possibility of redress and many times these circumstances lies in the way of initiating and completing adequate proceedings to bring justice. It is clear that further research in the field of jurisdiction and applicable law is desirable and all the analysed cases demonstrate this.

Non-judicial mechanisms such as alternative dispute resolutions could be a possible measure to bring justice. Today there are several alternative dispute resolutions which could be used in order to solve HRs violations. One of these is arbitration, which I found very interesting, and which is frequently used in many areas, but has so far it not gained success in the area of HRs violations.

Also the capacity and expertise of the arbitrators should be questioned likewise their priorities since their tribunals are not HRs bodies. Other difficulties arbitration faces are transparency, consent, costs and enforcement. Regarding the transparency I believe that it is important to ask the question; is it right to settle HRs disputes which have massive public interest in a tribunal, which is mainly commercial and secret and where the outcome will never be known to its public? It is apparent that there are no answers to all these questions and that in order to solve these difficulties further investigation is required. Although, after listening at the training session I got the impression that there are more possibilities than obstacles.

Finally the area HRs in business is still an unexplored, but interesting, area which should be invested in. I am of the opinion that HRs in business has so far not been given enough recognition. Thus my last conclusion is that education in the field is necessary, not only for students, but for all stakeholders.

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