Doug Cassel on an International Treaty

Efforts are underway to draft and negotiate a binding treaty on business and human rights. At one end are advocates and civil society organisations who would like a treaty that addresses all forms of corporate abuses; at the other end are legal experts and governments who do are reluctant to create a body of law that may transfer state obligations to non-state actors and which may focus only on one type of companies – the multinational corporation, ignoring large national or state-owned companies. It is also too early to tell what the treaty might do and how effective it might be. In this podcast with IHRB’s Salil Tripathi, Douglass Cassel explains the process so far and points out the progress made, as well as suggesting some practical ways forward.

Douglass Cassel is Professor of Law and Notre Dame Presidential Fellow at Notre Dame Law School in the United States.  He teaches and publishes scholarly and professional articles in the field of business and human rights. Cassel has been legal advisor to the UN Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, executive council member of the American Society of International Law, and chaired the independent international panel on alleged collusion in sectarian killings in Northern Ireland.

This podcast is part of a mini-series dedicated to the theme of “Realising Access to Effective Remedy”, as part of IHRB's annual Top 10 Business & Human Rights issues for 2018.

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