Human Rights Due Diligence for Corporations: from Voluntary Standards to Hard Law at Last?

Multinational corporations may play a significant role in contemporary conflicts both directly or indirectly by contributing to the financing of activities of warring armed groups. The international attention to this problem has recently been integrated into the efforts to develop the regulatory framework covering activities and working methods of corporate actors that impact negatively on human rights. This article analyses the initiatives to develop standards to regulate corporate behaviour affecting human rights in conflict zones. In particular, it studies the initiatives taken to prevent corporate involvement in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo through the exploitation and trade of so-called ‘conflict minerals’. Its main focus is the developing standard of human rights due diligence for corporations, and how international and State practice may be contributing to its transformation from a voluntary standard to measure corporate compliance with social expectations into a potential normative standard.