ABSTRACT
The most comprehensive means of reaching non-State actors is to reach individuals, regardless of their institutional disguises. Conceptually, the simplest approach to the task of reaching new, non-State actors is somehow to include them within existing human-rights instruments and machinery. The illusion of strong governments nevertheless persists in United Nation (UN) debates on human rights. By making UN Member States accountable for their treatment of individuals, the post-1945 framework for achieving universal respect for human rights was a break with the past. The best course of action is to abandon the illusion of strong States, and find ways of importing human-rights standards into the new arenas of world power: trade regulation and consumer choice. Recalling the history of the long struggle against apartheid reminds reader one of the most powerful weapons of human-rights defenders against corporations can be "consumer exit"—consumers' purchasing decisions.
