Corporate accountability for international crimes and the right to remedy

During the 13th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, Nov 2024, Swedwatch arranged a hybrid event together with PAX.

It was an informal side event about frictions between the human rights responsibilities of companies under the UNGPs, the right to remedy for victims of gross human rights abuses, and the practice of holding corporations to account for international crimes through criminal justice.

In recent years, efforts to ensure criminal accountability of corporate actors for international atrocity crimes have increased. Criminal prosecution of corporate actors who have caused or contributed to gross human rights abuses and/or international atrocity crimes is considered an important facet of the access to remedy for victims. However, the practice of criminal prosecution of corporate actors is marred with obstacles to the realization of this right to remedy.

The panelists reflected on these tensions by diving into the landmark war crimes trial against former executives of Swedish oil company Lundin, as well as other cases.

Introduction and moderation
Anita Ramasastry, Henry M. Jackson Professor of Law at the University of Washington School of Law, and former Chair of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Speakers
Rev. James Ninrew Kuong Deng, Plaintiff in the Lundin war crimes trial and Chair of Leech Victims Voices, representing South Sudanese communities affected by war crimes

Tara Van Ho, Senior Lecturer at Essex Law School and Human Rights Centre

Olof Björnsson, Senior Researcher at Swedwatch, author of Fuel for Conflict about the role of institutional investors in the Lundin case

Egbert Wesselink, PAX, lead author of Unpaid Debt, The Legacy of Lundin, Petronas and OMV in Block 5A, Sudan 1997 - 2003

Link to watch the event: