Transnational Private Regulation and Human Rights

The case studies in this unit will examine the public and private regulatory responses to the challenge to human rights created by the growing phenomenon of military/security responsibilities being assigned to private corporations. Focus will be related to questions 1 and also 2. Case studies are:

• 3.1 Private Security Companies
  Private Security Companies (PSC) are booming business, while the protection of their employees is under regulated and not living up to core standards of international – humanitarian and human rights – law. This project involves a desk study of existing views on regulating corporate behaviour and their relevance for PSC, followed by an empirical study of the behaviour of some PSC and an analysis of the conditions for the emergence of effective and legitimate regulatory and enforcement measures. The project will be carried out in collaboration with IKV Pax Christi and companies involved in the ‘Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights’ Initiative (2000), leading to an intermediate report and journal articles.
• 3.2 Extraordinary Rendition in Civilian and Private Aircraft
  This case study will investigate the potential for public or private industry regulation of private military activity, together with developing human rights standards, in creating an effective regulatory framework where the choice of private actors can no longer be seen as minimising states’ obligations to protect individuals from torture.
• 3.3 Data protection
  Recently the EU has recognised transnational corporate privacy policies of multinational companies as a valid instrument to facilitate worldwide cross border transfers of personal data between their group companies. This case study will investigate the forces leading to the emergence of these transnational corporate privacy codes, and how they differ from other forms of transnational corporate self-regulation and their effectiveness in achieving the public objectives relating to data protection.