The Human Rights Obligations of Multinational Corporations and Their Regulation

Abstract

With the deepening of globalization, the involvement of transnational firms in the process of world economic development is becoming increasingly significant. Global supply chain production and sales are increasingly being handled by multinational enterprises. As a result, in order to obtain profits, transnational corporations are polluting the host country's environment, utilizing illegal labor practices and other abuses of human rights when conducting their business. Therefore, it has become the focus of the international community and rights advocacy organizations to assume the responsibility of human rights of transnational corporations. In this context, through literature analysis, comparative method and other research methods, this paper studies the urgency and necessity of multinational firms must take on obligations related to human rights, the current situation and dilemma of multinational corporations to undertake human rights responsibilities, and the legal regulation of multinational corporations' human rights responsibilities. There are three main ways to investigate the human rights responsibility of transnational corporations: state regulation of transnational corporations, non-governmental organization regulation of transnational corporations and self-regulation of transnational corporations. However, at present, these approaches are not enough to guarantee the obligations of multinational corporations with regard to human rights, and these measures must be strengthened to regulate the human rights responsibilities of transnational corporations.