Editor's Note: Catherine
Dunmore is an experienced international lawyer who practised international
arbitration for multinational law firms in London and Paris. She recently
received her LL.M. from the University of Toronto and her main fields of
interest include international criminal law and human rights. Since October
2017, she is part of the team of the Doing Business Right project at the Asser Institute.
Background
At the United Nations
Forum on Business and Human Rights from 27-29 November 2017 in
Geneva, discussions focused on the central theme of Realizing Access
to Effective Remedy. With an increasing focus on this third pillar
of the United Nations
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a working group of
international law, human rights and conflict management specialists (Claes Cronstedt, Jan Eijsbouts,
Adrienne Margolis, Steven Ratner,
Martijn
Scheltema and Robert C.
Thompson) has spent several years exploring the use of arbitration
to resolve business and human rights disputes. This culminated in the
publication on 13 February 2017 of a proposal for International Business and Human
Rights Arbitration. On 17 August 2017, a follow-up Questions and Answers
document was published by the working group to address the principal questions
raised about the proposal during the three-year consultation with stakeholders.
Now, a drafting team
is being assembled, chaired by Bruno Simma,
to prepare a set of rules designed specifically for international business and
human rights arbitration (the
Hague International Business and Human Rights Arbitration
Rules) in consultation with a wide range of business and human
rights stakeholders. Once
drafted, the rules will be offered to the Permanent Court
of Arbitration and
other international arbitration institutions and could be used in arbitration
proceedings managed by parties on an ad
hoc basis.
Introduction
Part 1
of this three-part blog series gave an overview introduction to the proposal
for international business and human rights arbitration. This Part 2 focuses on
(1) the potential advantages of
using international arbitration to resolve such disputes, as well as (2) the substantial challenges the
proposal will face in practice. Part 3 will then provide a case study of the
Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh’s binding arbitration process. More...