Extraterritorial Application of International Human Rights Conventions——From the Perspective of States Regulating the Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations of Transnational Corporations

The extraterritorial application of international human rights conventions is the legal basis for states to regulate the extraterritorial human rights obligations of transnational corporations.In recent years, it has been increasingly challenged by the new trend of the United Nations governing the human rights responsibilities of transnational corporations. A study of existing international rules and practices shows that the extraterritorial application of international human rights conventions depends on the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the States Parties, which mainly includes the actual control over extraterritorial territories and individuals as well as the execution of authority outside the territories. In view of the above, if human rights violations by individuals or transnational corporations occur in areas outside their home territories or are authorized and orchestrated by the home state, the home state shall bear the corresponding human rights responsibilities. Given the restrictive scope of the abovementioned extraterritorial application of international human rights conventions, the international cooperation obligation and the "do no harm" principle may become a new legal basis for states to fulfill their extraterritorial human rights obligations in the future, thereby expanding the basis for the extraterritorial application of international human rights conventions to deal with more serious issues of human rights violations by transnational corporations. However, on the whole, the current identification and codification of states regulating the extraterritorial human rights obligations of transnational corporations should respect the existing rules of international human rights law and should not add any new human rights obligations on states.