Penalising The Failure To Prevent Human Rights Abuses

This article was first published by the Law Society Gazette on 6 April 2020.

Background

While debate rumbles on over the extension of 'failure to prevent' offences into the broad spectrum of financial crime, including fraud and money laundering, some have called for their introduction into an altogether different sphere: human rights.

Last month, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law published a report describing its vision for how the model could operate to punish companies deemed responsible for human rights abuses in their supply chain ("the Report").¹

The central contention of the Report is that legislating to punish corporate failure to prevent human rights abuses will provide legal certainty regarding the human rights obligations that companies face and encourage them to take steps to guard against abuses in their supply chain.