Conceptualizing the Home State Duty to Protect Human Rights

The state duty to protect human rights from abuses by non-state actors including business is one of the three differentiated but complementary pillars that make up the UN Protect, Respect, Remedy Framework for Business and Human Rights. Yet the jurisdictional scope of the duty to protect is disputed. This chapter explores both the permissibility of home state regulation under jurisdictional principles of public international law and the existence of home state obligations to regulate and adjudicate transnational corporations to prevent and remedy human rights violations. Properly understood, the state duty to protect applies to all executive, legislative and judicial organs of government that are involved in creating and supporting the global economic order and thus the conduct of transnational corporations. The chapter concludes by briefly evaluating whether mandating compliance with the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment could serve to fulfill the state duty to protect.