Home States, Outward Investment, and Extraterritorial Rights Obligations

Home states have an important role in advancing responsible and rights-compliant outward investment. CCSI, through its research, technical inputs, and convenings, works to articulate how home states can do so. This work has included:

• a conference focused on home country measures to regulate foreign investment for sustainable development (background paper available here, and taxonomy of home country measures available here)
• various submissions to governments and UN bodies, including, for example: a memo to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, regarding its draft General Comment on State obligations under the ICESCR in the Context of Business Activities; a memo to the UK Government on the UK National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights; a memo to the US Government on the US National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct; and a memo to the US Government on the Burma Responsible Investment Reporting Requirements
• research on home-country measures supporting international climate change mitigation and adaptation
• publications that address governments’ extraterritorial obligations related to human rights, including: an FDI Perspective, entitled “Land Investments and Human Rights: How Home Countries Can Do More”; and an entry written by Claire Debucquois and Kaitlin Cordes on “Extraterritorial Obligations of States and the Right to Food” in the Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics (2014)