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<DIV><B>From:</B> <A title=kent@hawaii.edu href="mailto:kent@hawaii.edu">George
Kent</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"> </DIV>The Reader before the last
raised hugely important issues. Can anyone "make" international organizations
and corporations into bona-fide duty bearers? What does that mean?
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<DIV>Under current international human rights law, states become the primary
duty bearers through own consent, as signified by their ratification of
international treaties. They still retain considerable latitude for
interpretation, so the duties are not very precisely specified. Moreover, the
means for calling them to account are weak.</DIV>
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<DIV>There is no systematic procedure for obtaining the agreement of
international organizations or corporations that they will bear particular
obligations. What then is to "make" them into duty bearers? Who will call them
to account?</DIV>
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<DIV>Under the conventional understanding of the nation-state system, we used to
have the idea that corporations would be licensed by states and thus would be
subject to governance by states. As we know, reality is that many of them are by
now quite literally out of control. </DIV>
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<DIV>There is no established mechanism for calling international organizations
to account except through their directors. In practice, they often act with
impunity, as if they were wholly autonomous.</DIV>
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<DIV>The problem is one of global governance. The nation-state system that
served reasonably well since the middle of the 17th century is now incapable of
dealing with issues that are of global dimensions. We have to invent a new
global order that is adequate to meet the needs of the 21st century.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=2>The pertinent para of that Reader read:</FONT></DIV>
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<P class=MsoBodyText><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=1><SPAN
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style="LINE-HEIGHT: 17px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman">11. But it has proven
difficult to make international organizations and corporations bona-fide duty
bearers (DBs) so as to hold them accountable for not respecting human rights.
For this, voluntary guidelines for their behavior are useful, but only as an
intermediate step on the way to juticiability. (e.g., FAO Voluntary Guidelines
for the Right to Adequate Food and Nutrition, 2005) Being able to hold them
legally accountable will be useful, because the HRBA specifically zeros-in on
the actions or inactions of bona-fide DBs. (S. Maxwell) This then gives us the
recourse to demand these DBs rectify their shortcomings and come up with the
needed remedies for HR violations and with the needed reparations for its
victims. But so far, we have had little political success in our efforts to
get the HRBA accepted and applied by these organizations and corporations. A
challenge here.</SPAN></FONT></P>
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