The Development of Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights. Privatization or Diffusion?

Globalization, global governance and transnational law are changing the character, meanings and aspects of responsibility. A case in point is the growing responsibility of non-state actors for human rights. Does the shift of responsibility from states to non-state actors entail a privatization or a diffusion of responsibility? Is responsibility being weakened or strengthened? Analyzing the development of corporate responsibility for human rights, the paper asks for the changes and modifications of responsibility and how it challenges the dichotomies between state and non-state actors, as well as between soft law and hard law.