Last month’s politics diary reported on the appointment of John Ruggie by the International Finance Corporation to examine the impacts of investment agreements on human rights in emerging markets.

The central issue of Ruggie’s work will concern the privileges sometimes granted to investing companies above the rights of local people – a company might be given preferential access to water or electricity, or be exempted from labour or human rights laws. The implications if investors are unscrupulous are readily apparent, since they have, in effect, a carte blanche to do what they want without fear of legal reprisals. Conversely, companies do need to be able to plan and not see their activities affected by unwarranted interference.

On one level, then, Ruggie’s new mandate will provide, hopefully, some recommendations to achieve what he terms “the right balance between the investor’s legitimate interest to protect an investment and the host state’s duties to protect human rights”.

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