Reconstructing the global human rights order in pursuit of a binding business human rights treaty in the era of decolonisation

The current global human rights order, eminently propagated in international legalinstruments and statements, is to a great extent state-centric in character, bestowingobligations on states, whilst largely ignoring the conduct of non-state actors in the form oftransnational corporations (TNCs) and trade governance institutions whose record of humanrights adherence is scarcely convincing. This inability to aptly govern the conduct oftransnational entities, even when it is evident that their power now eclipses that of states,raises the concern that the extant human rights regime is a neoliberal construct advancingmarket fundamentalism and widening the economic disparities between developed anddeveloping countries. This article unsettles the doctrinal foundations underlying statecentrism in international human rights law, arguing that such a version of human rights isexposing developing countries to neoliberal oligarchs, and market deficiencies, which if notreformed, may entrench underdevelopment. It calls for a decolonised human rights regimewhich impose human rights obligations on the conduct of transnational entities in pursuit ofhuman dignity, equality and freedom.