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Home > Penn Carey Law Journals > U. Pa. J. Int'l L. > Vol. 46 (2024-2025) > Iss. 2 (2025)

 

University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law

Publication Date

Winter 2025

First Page

547

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Business and Human Rights’ transformation into hard law is proceeding at a rapid pace. Across Europe and the United States, legislatures are adopting legal regimes to compel mandatory human rights due diligence, proscribe the importation of goods made with forced labor, and erect civil causes of action against companies that violate human rights across their global value chains. Yet, these regimes have so far failed to account for the practical challenges that rightsholders operating at the bottom of Global South value chains face in accessing remedy. These regimes neglect that in states where judicial fora are weak or inadequate, rightsholders are not equipped to travel to Global North metropoles to see their day in court—to meaningfully advance their grievances. This Comment contends that a new generation of African international investment agreements is poised to make grievance adjudication more accessible for rightsholders. The Protocol on Investment of the African Continental Free Trade Area fashions a series of new obligations for African investors, including provisions on environmental protection, responsible business, and labor rights. The Protocol on Investment also erects a new third-party cause of action, where injured rightsholders can sue violative investors. These forwardlooking provisions stand to inaugurate a new era of intra-African Business and Human Rights litigation. Further, this Comment offers recommendations for the African Union to integrate these provisions into bilateral investment treaties with non-AU states, to amend provisions of the forthcoming dispute resolution Annex to the Protocol to reflect a bottom-up approach, and to adopt a continent-wide Framework on Business and Human Rights. These recommendations are designed to provide African rightsholders with expanded access to effective remedy.

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