Investigations into atrocity crimes often start by mapping the ‘crime base’. Investigators and analysts sift the facts on the ground that establish the commission of crimes, looking for patterns and leads for further investigation. These pages present the patterns of corporate involvement in international crimes, based on past cases where businesses have been accused of being involved in international crimes.

Think of this site as a generic ‘corporate crime-base’, a collection of fact-patterns that can be mined for indicators of risk, otherwise known as ‘red flags’.

Red flags for what?

Businesses that ignore their human rights responsibilities can end up in court. This is particularly true of companies or business people who operate in conflict-affected or high-risk areas, where human rights abuse can rise to the level of international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. The laws governing these crimes can criminalize business activities, both when a business acts to commit a crime directly as a perpetrator or when it contributes to a crime as an accomplice.

The purpose of the Corporate Crime-Base is to warn business about risky behaviour in conflict-effected and high risk areas (CAHRAs) and to help victims in those areas exercise their right to remedy. To do this, the red flags listed on the main landing page highlight fact patterns that have been investigated or litigated.

The red flags listed here aren’t the only ways that companies can be involved in violations of human rights in conflict zones, just the ones that have landed companies in legal trouble

Prevention and accountability

The idea is that historical examples about company activities or relationships that have landed a company in legal trouble in connection to war or repression serves two important functions: prevention and accountability.

The fact patterns described under each red flag are designed with prevention in mind, to warn companies to act with due diligence to avoid causing, contributing or being directly linked to international crimes, such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. This goes for investors and other business partners as well, all of whom need to manage the risk that companies they partner with, or whose shares they hold in their portfolios, may be involved in the activities identified here.

Equally, the fact patterns described under each red flag are designed with accountability in mind; to provide the victims of atrocities, public interest litigators, human rights defenders, journalists and investigators with a place to start in their efforts to end impunity for corporate actors that support international crimes. The red flags identified here are starting points for citizen investigations into corporate participation in international crimes by victims, survivors, and their allies.

War zones are not law free zones

In conflict and war, justice can be hard to come by. Legal options are corrupted or captured by repressive regimes or their business allies, or simply overwhelmed by violence. Jurisdiction can be hard to exercise. But war and conflict are not law free zones. Human rights applies in war zones and there are laws that attempt to protect people from the violence of war and from atrocities. These laws apply to businesses, and both governments and individuals and can trigger cases in jurisdictions around the world. The cases which form the crime base outlined here show that businesses can be culpable for international crimes.