Delivered at the ‘Business and Human Rights’ Conference - Organized by the Danish Section of the ICJ [International Commission of Jurists] - Copenhagen, 21 September 2005 - ...I see no alternative but to move gradually towards developing a set of legally binding rules, a set of global standards about the ways in which companies should respect human rights. These should be rules that not only require states to ensure companies do not violate human rights, but which can also apply directly to companies when states are unwilling or unable to enforce them...Victims of human rights violations need rights and remedies, not merely charity or philanthropy...We need global rules because most large corporations have outgrown the ability of many individual states to regulate them effectively...I am announcing today that we are setting up an expert panel of jurists to consider over a twelve month period when companies should be held complicit in the most serious human rights violations carried out by governments, that is international crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity...What divides some companies from many human rights advocates is whether human rights should be a matter of obligation or voluntarism. But what should bring us all together is the need now, for a common set of universal standards around which we can all agree and move forward. Then let us see whether voluntary initiatives are enough or we need to continue moving towards obligation.