The Limitations of Human Rights Law Enforcement

This chapter provides an analysis of the limitations and challenges of International Human Rights Law as a tool to address the impacts derived from mineral exploitation. Many of these challenges are not unique to the context of mineral exploitation but are systemic issues inherent in the architecture of International law and Human Rights Law. This chapter examines the core obligations of states under International Human Rights Law and elucidates how these obligations lay the foundation for attributing responsibilities under International Human Rights Law. It moves on to emphasize the disparity between the theoretical responsibility for human rights violations and practical enforcement. To this end, it critically analyses the reliance on State Responsibility for internationally wrongful acts, and the accessibility to the mechanisms for individual complaints within the human rights universal and regional regimes. A significant aspect of the chapter is the critical analysis of the extent to which these mechanisms are available to individuals per world regions (percentage of population), given the limited ratification by States. The chapter also challenges in enforcing State responsibilities for corporate human rights violations in the context of mineral exploitation.