"Access to legal remedies for victims of corporate human rights abuses in third countries", Feb 2019

This study attempts to map out all relevant cases (35 in total) filed in the Member States of the European Union on the basis of alleged corporate human rights abuses in third countries. It also provides an in-depth analysis of 12 cases and identifies various obstacles (legal, procedural and practical) faced by claimants in accessing legal remedy. On the basis of these findings, it makes a number of recommendations to the EU institutions in order to improve access to legal remedies in the EU for victims of human rights abuses by European based companies in third countries...

The study shows that companies can be held to account for human rights abuses through a variety of judicial and non-judicial state and non-state mechanisms. They differ inter alia in terms of who has access, the procedures followed and outcomes. Currently, there is no exhaustive overview of all possible mechanisms or finalized or ongoing cases. For the purpose of this study, we have limited our focus to the use of judicial mechanisms in EU MS [member state] and aimed to provide an overview of all relevant cases...

[The study recommends strengthening human rights due diligence requirements, strengthening the jurisdiction of EU MS over extraterritorial cases, strengthening access to the law of an EU MS as applicable law and the development of an information platform to exchange best practices.]