Chinese Multinational Companies in Africa: The Human Rights Discourse

Abstract

In this century, human rights have been transformed into a mainstream issue for multinational companies with a global presence. It is likely that a multipronged mechanism will imminently be demanded to ensure the accountability of economic actors responsible for human rights abuse. This paper places particular stress on the ostensibly prioritized objectives within international human rights arenas. A highly contentious debate revolves around whether China’s approach to ensuring human rights is in tandem with the West’s in helping Africa move forward or whether it will complicate the current playing field and even undermine the West’s long-standing credibility in relation to the protection of human rights. Relying heavily on instruments like the Alien Tort Statute (ats) has proved inadequate. A more promising path seems to be a comprehensive framework of hard law and soft law initiatives, along with other incentives.