The Bangladesh Accords: A Sustainable Model For Business And Human Rights Disputes?
- IJLLR Journal
- Dec 26, 2024
- 1 min read
Bhumika Sanyal, BA LLB, O.P Jindal Global University
ABSTRACT
The Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013 highlighted the dire working conditions in Bangladesh's garment industry, prompting the creation of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. This paper examines the Accord's two-step Dispute Resolution Process (DRP) involving arbitration, and aims to determine whether such an alternative to conventional systems of grievance redressal is a suitable and sustainable model to resolve similar disputes in the Business and Human Rights (BHR) arena. BHR disputes are complex and sensitive, given their multiple players, interests, and locations, making their resolution challenging. Thus, there is an urgent need for innovation in BHR disputes given their frequency in an evolving corporate world with capitalist ideals, which often places profit incentives in conflict with individual rights and liabilities. Third-world countries in the global supply chain have tended to face the brunt of such disputes, especially due to their weak regulatory mechanisms. An analysis of the Accord’s advantages as well as its drawbacks can serve as a precedent to advocate or limit such alternate dispute resolution mechanisms, and determine the effectiveness of binding, inclusive and enforceable governance agreements set up by private ordering.
Keywords: Bangladesh Accord, Business and Human Rights, Dispute Resolution Process, Arbitration, Transnational Disputes, Corporate Social Responsibility, Governance Framework, Sustainability.
