Silent Corporate Complicity of Transnational Corporations in Gross Human Rights Violations Committed by Host States

This paper reveals, through an examination of the case of corporate silent complicity (SCC) a prolonged weakness in the international standards asserting the accountability of transnational corporations (TNCs). SCC here refers to cases where TNCs become complicit in gross human rights abuses committed by host-State's actors, by virtue of being silent. While SCC might attract criminal responsibility for the officials of the TNC in question on the national/international level, and/or civil liability of the TNC and/or its employees on the national level, thus far the international community has not condemned it in an effective and consistent manner. That is due the fact that the international community has yet adopted binding standards for TNCs. The solution is to adopt a new binding international mechanism identifying TNCs' human rights obligations in light of their commitments to their new global social role as reflected in international standards and through consideration of recent progressive approaches calling to incorporate human rights concerns in company's governance. The new International Convention on TNCs Human Rights Responsibilities (ICTHRR), should hold TNCs accountable when implicated in SCC, additionally it should establish an international mechanism that guarantees and monitors its implementation.