The recent lawsuit against the French banking giant BNP Paribas for alleged complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Rwanda in 1994, has revived the debate on the role of multinationals in violating human rights in Africa.

Law experts say the international community now needs to formulate a mechanism that would make transnational corporations accountable for human rights violations and provide access to justice for victims.

“There is a need to establish a strong international mechanism that puts multi-national corporations directly within the jurisdiction of an international regulatory institution, because the approach of indirect regulation has failed to deliver the desired results,” said Fructose Bigirimana, dean of the faculty of law in INES-Ruhengeri.

The existing international framework of corporate human rights responsibility relies on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. But, these are criticised for being inadequate as they do not prescribe clear human rights standards, excessively rely on states to enforce the rules and offer no sanctions for non-compliance.

In several African countries, large enterprises are increasingly being accused of human-rights violations including forced labour and impact on the environment negatively.

Corporate criminal liability

The BNP Paribas case goes beyond regulatory offences and calls for corporate liability.

Three French NGOs, Sherpa, the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR) and Ibuka France want the bank investigated for alleged transfer of funds from an account of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), to one of the Swiss bank UBP, which was used to buy arms and ammunition during the 1994 genocide.

According to the NGOs, this was done while the UN Security Council had adopted an embargo banning any delivery of weapons to Rwanda.

According to the NGOs, if the facts were to be proven, it would highlight the potential responsibility of investors in armed conflicts and more generally in serious violation of human-rights.

“We have highlighted the facts and it is now up to the Paris Intermediate Court to determine whether the suit has legal basis and thus order the launch of investigations, which might be criminal investigations,” said Alain Gauthier, the president of CPCR.

The French Penal Code adopted in 1994, recognises corporate criminal liability. However, analysts say having a regulatory framework and enforcing it are two different things.

BNP Paribas has already been sentenced in the United States with a fine of nearly $9 billion for violating a United States embargo on Sudan during the massacres in Darfur.

While some legal experts say an international body with criminal jurisdiction over multinationals would keep their human-rights record in check, others doubt this stage would ever be reached.

“There would need to be broad consensus among states that juristic criminal responsibility does exist and is worth pursuing and at present, that is not the case,” said John Paul Ongeso, the director of Corporate Accountability for the African Legal Centre and lecturer at the Law School of the Strathmore University in Nairobi.