ABSTRACT
The association of human rights with business has gained a strong foothold in international, as well as domestic law. A great number of United Nations (UN) initiatives include a reference to corporate responsibility for human rights. A number of attempts to regulate corporate activities notoriously failed at the UN level in the 1970s and 1980s when no consensus was reached to adopt a code of conduct for transnational corporations (TNC); however, the United Nations Centre for Transnational Corporations was inaugurated in 1977. The Guiding Principles remain salient on the exact relationship between state and corporate responsibility. However, both notions of state and corporate responsibility are included in the concept of complicity. The UN Global Compact stipulates in Principle Two: 'businesses should make sure they are not complicit in human rights abuses'. Against this background, it subscribes to a pluralist approach to corporate human rights responsibilities and its enforcement.
