"Business and Human Rights: FIDH and HRIC submit amicus brief in European Court of Human Rights’ ‘ThyssenKrupp case’", 4 March 2021

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Human Rights International Corner (HRIC) submitted a written intervention today as a third party in a case before the European Court of Human Rights concerning irresponsible corporate behaviour and the right to life. In the brief, FIDH and HRIC share their expert analysis with the Court, encouraging it to clarify the need for prompt and effective redress for human rights violations committed by corporations and for perpetrators to be held to account, and to develop harmonised standards and a more coherent system of access to remedies throughout European states.

The case, Alosa and Others v. Italy and Germany – also known as the ‘ThyssenKrupp case’ – introduced in April 2018, concerns Germany’s refusal to hand over to Italy two managers of a ThyssenKrupp steel plant in Turin, despite their being convicted of involuntary arson, involuntary manslaughter and other charges following a deadly industrial accident in 2007, which claimed seven workers’ lives and injured one other.

To this day, the sanctions imposed on the two managers have not been fully enforced, and they continue to work for the multinational company, at its headquarters in Essen ...

The amicus curiae brief, drawing on the authors’ expertise on business and human rights, analyses the international human rights legal framework applicable to corporate actors as well as the State’s duty to protect human rights from corporate violations, especially the State’s obligation to ensure access to remedy for victims.

... Given the failure of German or Italian authorities to execute the sentence and hold the perpetrators to account, the victims and their families turned, in 2018, to the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that both States had violated their rights under the Convention.