Human Rights, Corporate Complicity and Disinvestment

Gro Nystuen is Chair of the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global, and is dr juris and Associate Professor at the University of Oslo and the Defence Staff University College. She was Chair of the Advisory Commission on International Law for the Petroleum Fund from 2001 to 2004. Nystuen has been in the Foreign Service since 1991 and has been seconded to the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia as well as the Office of the High Representative from 1995 to 1997. She was also a member of the Graver Committee which proposed the ethical guidelines for the Petroleum Fund. She is a managing partner at the International Law and Policy Institute, Oslo. Andreas Follesdal is a member of the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global, and is Professor and Director of Research at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo. Andreas holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard University and has both studied and taught at the University of Oslo, Harvard University and the Norwegian School of Management (BI). In 2003, he was a Fulbright 'New Century Scholar' on the topic, 'Fair Europe?' Andreas has edited books on democracy, the welfare state, consultancy and the European constitution, and is Founding Series Editor of Themes in European Governance, Cambridge University Press. Ola Mestad is Vice Chair of the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global, and is Professor dr. juris at the Centre for European Law and Department of Petroleum and Energy Law, University of Oslo. He has been a partner in the law firm BA-HR (Oslo) for many years, mainly in charge of oil and gas law. Currently, he is working with international economic law, especially trade and investment, as well as contract law and EU law. Ola Mestad has also done work on legal aspects of corruption.

1. Introduction Gro Nystuen, Andreas Follesdal and Ola Mestad; 2. Disinvestment on the basis of corporate contribution to human rights violations - the case of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Gro Nystuen; 3. Laws, standards, or voluntary guidelines? Simon Chesterman; 4. Responsibility beyond the law? Christopher Kutz; 5. Attribution of responsibility of listed companies Ola Mestad; 6. Responsibility for human rights violations, acts or omissions, within the 'sphere of influence' of companies Urs Gasser; 7. Human rights investment filters - a defense Andreas Follesdal; 8. The moral responsibilities of shareholders - a conceptual map Helene Ingierd and Henrik Syse; 9. Sovereign-wealth funds and (un)ethical investment: using 'due diligence' to avoid contributing to human rights violations committed by companies in the investment portfolio Bruno Demeyere; 10. Corporations and criminal complicity Andrew Clapham.