By: David Shea Bettwy
The absence of a global legal framework to hold multinational corporations (“MNCs”) accountable for human rights abuses has long been a concern of human rights activists, and is now receiving widespread attention as part of a worldwide movement against corporate abuses.1 This article re-examines the relationship between foreign direct investment (“FDI”) and international human rights. It concludes that human rights can be promoted more effectively by developing a framework to identify and to make operational the positive human rights impacts of FDI, in conjunction with, rather than in opposition to, a rights-based approach. To be accurate and therefore effective, a separate framework should be designed to measure the influence of FDI on human rights conditions.