Extraterritorial Sanctions, Transnational Corporate Activity, and State’s Duty to Protect

Unilateral (extraterritorial) economic sanctions, that are often imposed on states and non-state actors by another state, are incompatible with international human rights law. Major powers use their dominant positions in the global economy to attempt influence the political behaviour of states by imposing economic measures against them. Nevertheless, the principal Business and Human Rights instruments as well as other International Law instruments do not address extraterritorial sanctions and their negative impacts on the operation of foreign business entities and the consequent human rights violations. These sanctions threaten a wide range of rights and freedoms enshrined in international human rights law and cause irreparable collateral damage. This paper is a critical inquiry into the relationship between extraterritorial sanctions, their negative impacts on the operation of the business entities in sanctioned state, and sender state’s extraterritorial human rights obligations. In order to answer this question, the paper will explore state’s duty to protect in more details in the context of imposition of extraterritorial sanctions.