A very Brief Synopsis of Larry Catá Backer’s article:
Published in the Pacific McGeorge Global Business & Development Law Journal 2012
As part of our ongoing literature review series, I am happy to feature one of Larry Catá Backer’s articles. Prof. Backer is a pre-eminent scholar in the field of BHR. His research and thoughts on matters such as this have inspired my work greatly. Being a far more prolific blogger than I could ever hope, Prof. Backer regularly publishes in his blog spot: “Law at the End of the Day.” For any of you interested in the issues raised by the article discussed below, I strongly encourage you to visit his site, particularly during the month of February, when he discusses some of these issues, specifically within the contact of National Points of Contact for business and human righs issues. It is definitely worth the read.
This paper discusses the Guiding Principles and the Protect, Respect, and Remedy framework set out by the United Nations, and how it is intended to join together political, social, and economic governance systems in order to bring about positive changes in the realm of human rights around the world. This paper also critically analyzes the Guiding Principles and the Protect, Respect, and Remedy framework (“PRR framework”). The first section of the paper gives an in depth background of what led up to the development of the Guiding Principles and the PRR framework, the second section describes the actual development of them, the third and fourth parts of the article give intricate detail and analysis of each of the sections of the Guiding Principles and PRR framework. In this article, Backer describes the PRR framework as an innovative approach to governance, but he also describes it as vulnerable.
-The first and second sections describe what John Ruggie (as a Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprise) worked on throughout his time with the United Nations. This section covers the failed norms and the differences between the norms and the PRR framework. Backer also notes in this section that the PRR framework is “operationalized” through the Guiding Principles which were perfected and introduced in mid 2011. The Guiding Principles involve international institutional involvement to make the governance sustainable.
-The third section delves into the actual language of the introduction to the Guiding Principles. The introduction sets out the theory and the practicalities of how to protect and govern human rights. Backer says, “If the ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework provides the theoretical ‘authoritative focal point around which the expectations and actions of relevant stakeholders could converge’ then the Guiding Principles provide the operational focal point for the project. ”
-The final section dissects and analyzes each of the 31 General Principles of the Guiding Principles. Each of the Principles was based on one of the tenets of the PRR framework. It is repeatedly stated that the State’s responsibility is to protect human rights and the corporate responsibility is to respect human rights. Also, access to remedy is the third underlying theme. After Backer describes each of the Principles, he concludes by enumerating the issues that the Principles present because of their inter-systemic nature. He describes the issues mainly as a result of trying to coordinate different systems of governance into one cohesive system.
-Backer concludes by saying that while “innovations are never perfect,” this new framework will at very least play a significant role in the way that governance of human rights issues will take place.
You can view the full article here.
Prof. Backer’s blog, Law at the End of the Day can be found here.
Image from: http://law.psu.edu/faculty/resident_faculty/backer
