Impunity for businesses’ human rights violations has recently gained attention. This volume examines when, where, why and how victims have sometimes advanced accountability for economic actors’ abuses and what factors explain persistent obstacles to that process. It proposes a new framework for analysing accountability outcomes ‘from below’ drawing on Archimedes’ Lever notion: weak actors (victims of corporate abuses) of the Global South possess tools -- institutional innovators who creatively apply domestic civil, criminal, and administrative law and international human rights instruments --  ... More

Impunity for businesses’ human rights violations has recently gained attention. This volume examines when, where, why and how victims have sometimes advanced accountability for economic actors’ abuses and what factors explain persistent obstacles to that process. It proposes a new framework for analysing accountability outcomes ‘from below’ drawing on Archimedes’ Lever notion: weak actors (victims of corporate abuses) of the Global South possess tools -- institutional innovators who creatively apply domestic civil, criminal, and administrative law and international human rights instruments -- to lift the weight of corporate accountability from under the pressure applied by veto players in the business community, particularly when the lever’s fulcrum – or political context -- is in a more favourable position (closer to the weight of corporate accountability).  The evidence supporting the framework is provided in the case study chapters. Part I presents historical cases: Nazi Germany; authoritarian rule in Argentina, Brazil, and Peru; the Colombian armed conflict; and Apartheid South Africa. Part II examines contemporary business and human rights accountability efforts in procedural democracies: an overview of cases; Chile’s social upheaval; corruption in the Philippines; and the killing of environmental defenders in Honduras. The conclusion draws together the volume while also posing questions for future research and consideration.