On 19 July 2018, the Permanent Mission of Ecuador to the United Nations released a zero draft on a legally binding instrument (LBI) – a treaty in fact – on business and human rights. This zero draft will serve as the basis for negotiations during the fourth session of an ‘Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group’ which … Read more

I was recently invited as a legal expert to reflect on the potential for accountability of Dutch corporations profiting from the labour exploitation of North Korean workers abroad. Already in 2016, a team led by Remco Breuker, professor of Korean Studies at Leiden University, had issued a report detailing the appalling (forced) labour conditions in … Read more

On 2 November 2017, Natasa Nedeski successfully defended her PhD on ‘shared obligations in international law’ at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). I had the honour of being a member of the reading committee. Nedeski happens to be a former bachelor student of us at Utrecht University (UU). She also pursued an LL.M. in Public … Read more

De uitbuiting van huishoudelijk personeel door diplomaten is een oud zeer, ook in Nederland. De Volkskrant schreef vorig jaar dat bij het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken de afgelopen vijf jaar 26 particuliere bedienden van diplomaten geaccrediteerd in Nederland melding hadden gemaakt van uitbuiting. Het ging daarbij om onderbetaling, slechte arbeidsomstandigheden en ongewenste omgangsvormen. Tot nu … Read more

Between 18 and 20 May 2017, Ucall organized its second biennial international conference, titled ‘Accountability and International Business Operations: Providing Justice for Corporate Violations of Human Rights, Labor and Environmental Standards’. The conference included presentations by various keynote speakers and panelists, a stakeholders’ roundtable and a PhD masterclass (see the programme). In this post, some … Read more

On 2 May 2017, Jelle Leunis obtained his PhD in political science from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) on the accountability of private military and security companies (PMSCs), a topic that in this past has proved of interest to UCall too. The full title of the thesis is: ‘The regulatory governance of armed force: … Read more

  On 28 April 2017, Sofia Barros successfully defended her PhD at Leuven University on the topic of the responsibility of member states in the context of their participation in international organizations (full title: “Governance as Responsibility – Member State Participation in International Financial Institutions and the Quest for Effective Human Rights Protection”). I had … Read more

On 21 April 2017, the Court of Appeal of ‘s-Hertogenbosch convicted Dutch businessman Guus Kouwenhoven to 19 years of imprisonment for, inter alia, complicity in war crimes committed in Liberia. In the late 1990s Kouwenhoven had provided arms to the murderous regime of the Liberian president Charles Taylor, who was later convicted to 50 years … Read more

On 20 January 2017, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over claims brought by two trade unions against the European Patent Organization (EPO), an international organization (partly) based in The Hague. The Court held that the organization enjoyed immunity from the jurisdiction of Dutch courts in accordance with the EPO Protocol … Read more

Op 16 januari 2017 heeft Oekraïne een langverwachte zaak tegen Rusland formeel aanhangig gemaakt bij het Internationaal Gerechtshof (IGH), waarbij het de Russische inmenging in Oekraïense aangelegenheden aan de kaak stelt. Oekraïne voert aan dat Rusland verschillende schendingen van het internationaal recht jegens Oekraïne heeft begaan, met name van het Verdrag inzake de Financiering van … Read more