The central theme of this article is to discuss the practical challenges of the initiative on legally binding treaty while emphasizing the further implementation of the existing soft law framework on business and human rights. In other words, this article will argue that presumed business and human rights treaty is unlikely to provide communities and individuals with sufficient protection from abuses involving business enterprises.

This article is schematized with three parts. Part I will discuss how the soft law frameworks have found its dominance in the field of business and human rights over the hard law. It will see the insufficient implementation of these soft laws as the main obstacles that face in the case of corporate human rights violations. Part II will discuss the recent initiative at the UN Human Rights Council which calls for the legally binding treaty on business and human rights. The final part of the article will analyse the practical challenges of this initiative.

business and human rights, international human rights treaty, soft law, international human rights law, human rights violations