We saw in chapter 7 that the international law of human rights was directed mainly to public authorities like states and their governments, but that private actors like traditional human rights groups helped shape the rights discourse and action. In this chapter we will show that transnational corporations have a tremendous effect on persons in the modern world, for good or ill. For the first fifty years after the adoption of the United Nations Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these business enterprises mostly fell outside the mainstream debate about the promotion and protection of internationally recognized human rights. This situation was changing on the eve of the twenty-first century. Attention to transnational corporations and human rights constitutes a new frontier in the international discourse on human rights. Non-profit human rights groups, along with the media and particularly consumer organizations and movements, are targeting the corporations. The result is renewed pressure on public authorities, especially states, to adopt regulations ensuring that business practices contribute to, rather than contradict, internationally recognized human rights.

Enormous impact

It has been long recognized that business enterprises that operate across national boundaries have an enormous impact on the modern world. If we compare the revenues of the twenty-five largest transnational corporations (TNCs) with revenues of states, as in table 8.1, we see that only six states have revenues larger than the nine largest TNCs. If we were to include transnational banks in this figure, the power of private for-profit enterprises would be even more evident.