Unhealthy foods, non-communicable diseases and the right to health 2014, para. 54
Paragraph- Paragraph text
- Due to the increased prevalence of NCDs and their link to practices adopted by the food industry, access to remedies is necessary. Judicial remedies to hold TNCs accountable for the violations of the right to health are particularly hard to achieve. Investment treaties such as bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements, which facilitate the foray and entrenchment of TNCs into domestic economies, contain international dispute settlement mechanisms that allow private companies to sue States. However, these treaties impose unilateral obligations on host States, so that it becomes difficult to bring TNCs into their domestic legal system, including the judicial system. Moreover, the principles of limited liability and separate legal personalities are often relied upon by parent companies to absolve themselves of any liability of their subsidiaries operating in various jurisdictions. Even where remedies against domestic companies exist, their enforcement is often absent or lax, and companies are not penalized for non-compliance. Consumers should be able to seek remedies against food companies, irrespective of the country of origin of the parent company. States should therefore clarify under domestic law the liability of the parent company and its subsidiaries.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Reference
- SR Health, Report to the HRC (2014), A/HRC/26/31, para. 54.
- Paragraph number
- 54
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