Business and International Crimes
War Economies
Liability and Complicity in Economies of Conflict:
Towards Defining Prohibited Practices
International humanitarian and human rights law prohibit economic actors from participating in, and benefiting from war crimes and other violent violence human rights abuses. Despite increasing attention given to the economic agendas of belligerents and the role of companies in sustaining war economies, most economic actors continue to operate with relative impunity. Such impunity is in large part the result of uncertainty concerning legal liabilities, inadequate enforcement, and difficulties in targeting policy responses.
This project will address each of these sources of impunity through three
interrelated tracks of research and policy support:
1. Regulation of Prohibited Practices
2. Assessment of Mechanisms of Enforcement
3. Production and Trade in Conflict Commodities
Policy developments to date strongly suggest that the next phase of research and policy formulation should build on efforts to define the security, political and economic risks involved in economies of conflict. The project assumes that this task will require research that combines analysis of domestic and international legal and enforcement frameworks combined with a deeper understanding of the social and economic processes involved in commodity production and trade.
The policy outputs in all three tracks aim to bring coherence to a broad agenda by providing concrete tools and analysis as the basis for policy. The policy outputs will be oriented towards efforts to identify targets and suggest options for national and international policies to resolve or manage conflict, and to improve security for people and states. In this respect, this project's focus on defining illicit economic activities will contribute to a deeper understanding of the rights and obligations of governments, businesses and communities concerning investment and production in situations of armed conflict, human rights abuse or widespread insecurity.
Project Manager
Mark B Taylor
Researchers
Karen Ballentine, Senior Consultant, Project Co-director (New York)
Anne Huser, Applicability to conflict of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
Pål Sletten, Global Commodity Chains
Christophe Gironde, Researcher, Global Commodity Chains, Child Soldiers
Publications
Unanswered Questions: Companies, conflict and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A report released in March 2004 by Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) examines the role of companies in the DRC conflict, their reactions to being listed by the UN Panel and the publicly unanswered questions that remain about their conduct. The report was supported in part Fafo AIS