ABSTRACT
Thus far, this study has set out the core theoretical components of State-centric scholarship and demonstrated the challenges that are characteristic of the nonState actors that operate in, or are sustained by, extractive industries in weak governance States. It was established that existing avenues to accountability, both domestic and international, remain either the exclusive domain of States or substantially constrained by State concerns. Advancing this analysis, this chapter aims to explore the theoretical potential for the ascription of direct international obligations to non-State actors. The political and economic concerns of State parties aside, it has long been suggested that, in today’s globalised era of diminishing State power, non-State actors ought to be directly responsible for the adverse human rights impacts they produce.1 Indeed, some international instruments already purport to bind non-State entities directly.2
