What does the SHRI mean by “Outsourcing of responsibility for human rights”?  

Case law, legal theory and political practice continue to be dominated by a traditional understanding of the concept of human rights which views them as territorially limited, state-centred and concerned with the present. Yet although the state is still the central focus, the advancement of human rights has long since extended responsibility for them to private actors such as companies and this responsibility also reaches beyond territorial boundaries – in the case of both states and private actors. Furthermore, the rights of future generations are increasingly being substantiated.  

However, effective implementation of these more extensive rights is frequently held back by the weight of the traditional understanding of human rights. States and private actors are thus able to outsource their responsibility for human rights, meaning that they either ignore them or delegate them to other actors.  

A topic for the SHRI  

The outsourcing of responsibility for human rights presents a structural challenge for their protection. This is of relevance in a number of debates currently taking place in Switzerland, such as on corporate human rights due diligence, human rights responsibility in the context of climate change and the outsourcing of asylum procedures. When identifying priority topics for its work up to 2027, the current importance of this issue prompted the SHRI to place particular focus on climate and human rights in relation to this notion of outsourcing. In addition, UN human rights bodies have repeatedly emphasised the role of national human rights institutions (NHRIs) in relation to climate change.  

Consequences of outsourcing 

The outsourcing of responsibility for human rights makes it difficult or impossible for rights holders to take effective action against rights violations. Examples include the rights of workers in transnational value chains and responsibility for the rights of future generations which is outsourced in instances where climate protection measures fall short of human rights requirements. 

Insourcing and assigning responsibility 

There are various processes which counteract outsourcing and which may be described as “insourcing” in the sense of assigning responsibility. Among these are legal developments (including at the international level) which partially transcend the traditional understanding of human rights. An example of such developments are the 2011 Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which address the human rights obligations that states have beyond their borders.  

Rights holders and human rights defenders are also taking action to resist this outsourcing of responsibility, for instance through climate litigation. Courts are applying human rights law to new situations and their opinions and rulings can be seen as an insourcing of responsibility.  

This priority topic enables the SHRI to address the tension between outsourcing and insourcing and to identify ways to strengthen human rights protection in cross-border contexts.