The Emergence of International Standards

Abstract

This chapter provides a short theoretical discussion on the role of standards, as opposed to rules and principles, in the progressive development of international law. The chapter also assesses the conceptual and legal relevance of each initiative, namely: the UN draft Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations, the UN Global Compact, the UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with regard to Human Rights, the influential UN Framework on Business and Human Rights and its Guiding Principles, the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Performance Standards of the International Finance Corporation. The chapter discusses the different conceptual approaches taken by these initiatives and assesses the extent to which current human rights-based approaches have built upon the earlier consolidation of international corporate environmental accountability standards and the extent to which they contribute to further detailing these standards.

Casting the net wider? The transformative potential of integrating human rights into the implementation of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies

“…72 Both the SSF Guidelines and the VGGT refer to the relevance of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 73 as part of their guidance on the interpretation of various sources of international human rights law in the fisheries sector. 74 UN Special Rapporteurs have also clarified the interpretation of relevant international human rights treaties in connection with fisheries, 75 culminating-together with other global social movements 76 -in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP), which applies specifically to small-scale fishers. 77 States' specific duties vis-à-vis peasants in SSF concern non-discrimination, access to effective remedies and the protection of human rights defenders.…”