The Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) has contributed to a submission with the Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) to the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Inquiry into Australia’s corporate criminal responsibility regime.
In order to strengthen accountability for offences committed by Australian corporations extraterritorially the HRLC and ACIJ make the following additional recommendations:
- The development of legislation imposing mandatory human rights due diligence obligations on large Australian companies and those operating in high-risk sectors or jurisdictions;
- The establishment of a specialist investigations unit focused on international crimes; and
- A further inquiry into criminal investigative processes, including in relation to extraterritorial offences.
Australia’s lack of institutional structure relevant to investigating extraterritorial offences in the Criminal Code – particularly where they involve serious violations of human rights – has contributed to the poor investigative and prosecution rate of these offences which further entrenches corporate impunity.
