The Journal of Human Rights

The Journal of Human Rights

Due Diligence obligations at the Heart of International Human Rights System

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
1 Ph.D. in Public International law, Department of Law, Mofid University, Qom, Iran.
2 Associate professor, Department of law, Mofid University, Qom, Iran.
Abstract
Currently, “due diligence” and its obligations are considered influential and controversial issues in international law. The efficiency of this principle in various fields of international law, such as human rights, humanitarian law, international investment law, state responsibility, environmental law, etc., has sparked many papers and research on it.
This article is dedicated to a comprehensive exploration of the 'due diligence' principle, with a specific focus on its position within the international human rights system. It also endeavors to delineate the principle's relationship with the three key obligations of states in the context of human rights: respect, protect and fulfill.
On the grounds that due diligence can be considered as the continuous attention to carefully fulfill treaty and customary obligations, its synergy with the three human rights principles leads to the fulfillment of the three aforementioned state obligations. Each human rights duty is divided into three parts: the obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill. Except for duty of omission, none of the commitments will be basically fruitful or will not reach the desired result without due diligence. As a result, it can be claimed that due diligence is at the heart of the international human rights system.
Keywords

Subjects


Bibliography 
Books:
De Schutter, Olivier. International Human Rights Law: Case, Materials, Commentary. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Deilami, Hasan Ibn Mohammad. Ershad Al_Qolob Ela_Savab. Qom: DarAl_ Osvah le Tabaah va Nashr, 1991. [In Persian]
Ghari Seyed Fatemi, Seyed Mohammad. Human Rights in the Contemporary World. Tehran: Shahre Danesh, 2009. [In Persian]
Holly, Gabrielle. Claire Methven O’Brien. Human rights due diligence laws: Key considerations. Denmark: Danish Institute for Human Rights, 2021.
Karp, David Jason. Responsibility for Human Rights Transnational Corporations in Imperfect States. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Krieger, Heike, Anne Peters, and Leonhard Kreuzer. Due Diligence in the International Legal Order. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Najandi Manesh, Heibat allah. An Introduction to International Human Rights. Tehran: Khorsandi Press, 2016. [In Persian]
Ollino, Alice. Due Diligence Obligations in International Law. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Seifi, Seyed Jamal. The law of International Responsibility Reflections on the law of state Responsibility. Tehran: Shahre Danesh, 2022. [In Persian]
Sohn, Louis B., Kristen Juras, John Noyes, Erik Franckx. The Law of the Sea in a Nutshell. Translated by Mohammad Habibi Mojande. Tehran: Jungle Press, 2011. [In Persian]
Tomuschat, Christian. Human Rights. Translated by Hossein Sharifi Tarazkohi. Tehran: Mizan Press, 2007. [In Persian]
Articles:
Baade, Björnstjern. “Due Diligence and the Duty to Protect Human Rights.” In: Due Diligence in the International Legal Order, Heike Krieger, 92-108. UK: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Barnidge, Robert. “The Due Diligence Principle under International Law”, International Community Law Review 8 (2006): 81-121.
Bonnitcha, Jonathan ,  Robert McCorquodale. “The Concept of ‘Due Diligence’ in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.” European Journal of International Law 28, no. 3 (2017): 899–919. https://doi.org/10.1093/ejil/chx042.
Chowdhury, Rashedur. “The Rana Plaza disaster and the complicit behavior of elite NGOs.” Sage Journals 24 (2017): 938-949. Doi: 10.1177/1350508417699023.
De Brabandere, Eric. “Host States' Due Diligence Obligations in International Investment law.” Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 42, no. 2 (2015): 320-360.
Esmaili, Mohsen, and Hossein Amini Pozveh. “Analysis of the nature and the legal system of the State Commitments in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, Quarterly Journal of Public Law Knowledge 5, no. 14 (August 2016): 69-94. [In Persian]
Farshasaid, Parviz, and Mahmoud Jalali. “International Responsibility of States For Cyber Attacks of Non-State Actors”, Modern Technologies Law 3 (November 2022): 173-184. [In Persian] https://doi.org/10.22133/MTLJ.2023.367059.1136
Haddadi, Mahdi, and Bahram moradian. “The Concept of Due Diligence in International Law and FATF Regulations”, International law Review an Academic Journal 61 (June 2019): 165-202. [In Persian]
Hoseini, Seyyed Mohammad, Mostafa Fazaeli, and Seyyed Masoud Mousavi Karimi. “The effectiveness of behavior monitoring criteria and discriminatory rules in the international human rights system with a glance to religious teachings”, The Journal of Human Rights 1, no. 35 (Spring-Summer 2023): 37-58. [In Persian]  https://doi.org/10.22096/hr.2023.562266.1507
KadKhodaei, Abbas, and Asma Salari. “Precautionary in International Law: A Customary Principle or a General Principle of Law?”, Public Law Research 20 (June 2018): 33-63. [In Persian]
Khubyari, Hamed. “Considering Ihtiat in its Feqh jurisprudence as the Bioenvironmental Precautionary Principle”, Adl va Ensaf Comparative Law Researches Quarterly 1, no. 3 (April 2019): 24-41. [In Persian]
Kulesza, Joanna, “Human Rights Due Diligence.” William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal 30 (2021-2022): 265-289.
Malekipour, Hamed, Pourya Askari, and Farideh Shaygan. “Analyzing Corporate Social Responsibility in light of Human Rights-Based Due Diligence”, Public Law Studies Quarterly 52 (Spring 2022): 185-206. [In Persian] https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2020.288225.2153
Mashhadi, Ali, and Atiyeh Shahhosseini. “Prevention of environmental damages according to International Law Commission's Draft Articles on prevention of trans boundary harm from hazardous activities (2001)”, Public Law Studies Quarterly 46 (July 2016): 273-295. [In Persian]
Mirabbasi, seyyed Bagher, and Abootaleb Amirshaabani. “Dispute Settlement Mechanisms of the Exclusive Economic Zone and their Challenges”, Public Law Studies Quarterly 48 (January 2019): 849-865. [In Persian] https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2018.137629.1159
Nourozi, Maryam. “Negative obligations of State to protect fundamental human rights”, Law and Political Science 60, no. 515 (June 2003): 265-288. [In Persian]
Porkhaghan, Zeinab, Roza Yaghobpor, and Hamidreza Heidarpor. “The concept, position and function of the principle of due diligence in international criminal law (focusing on the state responsibility to cooperate with the International Criminal Court)”, Journal of law and Politics 38 (Winter 2018): 163-190. [In Persian]
Ramazani Ghavam Abadi, Mohammad Hossein. “A Comparative Study of “Precautionary Principle” in Opinions and Decisions of Internationals Tribunals”, Public Law Research 15, no. 40 (September 2013): 141-164. [In Persian]
Samuel, Katja. “The Legal Character of Due Diligence: Standards, Obligations, or Both?” Central Asian Yearbook of International Law 1 (2018).
Trebilcock, Anne. “The Rana Plaza disaster seven years on: Transnational experiments and perhaps a new treaty?” International Labour Review 159, no. 4 (2020): 545-568.
Zamani, Seyed Ghasem, and Nasim Rahmannasab Amiri. “State Duty to Protect Human Rights: The Necessity of Acceptance of Corporate Criminal Responsibility for Human Rights Violations in National Legal Systems”, Journal of Criminal law and Criminology 9, no. 17 (July 2021): 9-27. [In Persian]https://doi.org/10.22034/JCLC.2021.133145
Documents and Electronic Resources:
Alabama claims of the United States of America against Great Britain, Award rendered on 14 September 1872.
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Report on the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth Sessions (25 April-13 May 2005, 7-25 November 2005). E/C.12/2005/5.
Frequently Asked Questions on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Fact Sheet No. 33, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
General Comment No. 12: The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11), Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, on 12 May 1999 (E/C.12/1999/5).
General Comment No. 31 [80] The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant Adopted on 29 March 2004 (2187th meeting). CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add. 13.
General Comment No. 6: Article 6 (Right to Life) Adopted at the Sixteenth Session of the Human Rights Committee, on 30 April 1982.
General Comment No. 14: Article 6 (Right to Life) Adopted at the Twenty-third Session of the Human Rights Committee, on 9 November 1984.
General comment No. 36: Article 6 (right to life) Human Rights Committee, 3 September 2019: CCPR/C/GC/36.
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework, Human Rights Council (A/HRC/17/31), 2011.
ILA Study Group on Due Diligence in International Law Second Report July 2016 Tim Stephens (Rapporteur) and Duncan French (Chair).
ILA Study Group on Due Diligence in International Law; First Report, 7 March 2014.
Rio Declaration, Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 12 August 1992.  A/CONF.151/26 (Vol. I).
The Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights: An Interpretive Guide, United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, Vienna, 22 March 1985.
The Right to Adequate Food, Fact Sheet No. 34, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Right.
 “Human Rights.” Accessed August 11, 2023.
“Human Rights.” Accessed August 11, 2023.
International Labour Organization. “Rana Plaza.” Accessed August 16, 2023.
Google, “Rana Plaza.” Accessed August 11, 2023.
“Human Rights.” Accessed August 11, 2023.
Google, “Rana Plaza.” Accessed August 11, 2023.
Send comment about this article
Enter Name.
Enter a valid email address.
Enter a vaid affiliation.
Enter comments (At leaset 10 words)
CAPTCHA Image
Enter Security Code Correctly.