Internationally, the debate on business and human rights has evolved within the last
decade, with more efforts being made to address the issue of what role corporations
play in the human rights domain. The latest international effort to address the issue
was the adoption of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights:
Implementing the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy Framework” by the
United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011. In brief, the Guiding Principles
observe that the state must protect human rights, that businesses must respect
human rights, and that there should be effective remedies for human rights
violations.
Locally, the Constitutional Court of South Africa ruled that mineworkers who are
eligible to get compensation under the Occupational Diseases in Mines and Works
Act had a common law right to sue the employer for injuries sustained at work. This
was despite the fact that legislation was put in place to replace the common law
liability of an employer for injuries or death sustained at work. On a broader scale,
the Guiding Principles then formed the yardstick for the determination of whether
there are adequate and effective remedies for human rights violations in the South
African mining industry.
The investigation essentially leads to the conclusion that the South African state has
not fallen short of its duty to protect and to provide sufficient remedies for businessrelated
human rights violations in the mining industry. The forums are in place and
there is legislation that also provides for compensation as remedies for either injuries
or death at work. Some issues of concern are the accessibility of the structures in
place to address human rights violations, the disparity between compensation
provided for in different legislation, and the lack of a more proactive approach by the
Human Rights Commission. / LLM (Import and export Law), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/12008 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Soyapi, Caiphas Brewsters |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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