Responsible business conduct is based on three pillars: the state’s duty to protect, the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, and the requirement of both states and companies to guarantee access to remedy. Identifying, preventing, and mitigating risks of adverse impact can be concretised through human rights due diligence.
Because arms transfers are closely linked to the states’ geopolitical interests and defence policy objectives, they are highly regulated and subjected to a strict export licencing process. States must ensure that these licences are only granted after conducting an impact assessment of the activities involved and as a result, corporate accountability has somehow gone unnoticed.
The international legal framework includes several mandatory and non-binding instruments that require states to regulate arms value chains. Today, the debate also focuses on the companies’ duty of care in the sector as:
- Risk assessments conducted by the state granting a licence do not discharge companies of their duty to address actual or potential adverse impacts they may cause as a result of their activities or products.
- Compliance with export licence requirements does not discharge companies of their responsibility to respect human rights and humanitarian law.
This report presents a comprehensive overview of the possibility and necessity of establishing corporate responsibility and accountability for companies active in the arms value chain.
