Coporate Human Rights Obligations: Evaluating Legal Frameworks In India Through A Comparative Lens
- IJLLR Journal
- 1 hour ago
- 1 min read
Naina Chouhan, BBA LLB (Hons.), Christ (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa
ABSTRACT
The expanding role of corporations in a globalized economy has brought renewed attention to their involvement in human rights violations, ranging from exploitative labour practices to environmental harm and displacement of vulnerable communities. While international frameworks such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have articulated the normative expectations of corporate conduct through the “Protect, Respect, and Remedy” framework, their largely voluntary nature has limited their practical impact. In India, this concern is further intensified by the absence of a dedicated legal regime that explicitly recognizes and enforces corporate liability for human rights violations, with existing laws addressing such concerns only indirectly.
This paper adopts a qualitative and comparative legal approach to examine the interaction between international standards and the Indian legal framework. It identifies a persistent gap between normative commitments and enforceable accountability, reflected in the dominance of soft law, procedural barriers to justice, and jurisdictional challenges in regulating corporate actors, particularly multinational enterprises. The analysis suggests that these structural limitations weaken both preventive and remedial mechanisms, allowing corporate misconduct to persist with limited legal consequences. The paper argues that bridging this accountability gap requires the development of a more coherent and binding legal framework in India, supported by stronger enforcement mechanisms and closer alignment with evolving international standards on business and human rights.
Keywords: Corporate Human Rights, Corporate Accountability, Soft Law, Enforcement Gap, Multinational Corporations, Indian Legal Framework.
