The Discursive Use and Development of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in Latin America

Due to their widespread acceptance, the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are currently the main normative body of reference in the field, and so, given their expressive functions, they permeate and determine the way in which different actors shape their discourses. By appropriating the concepts found therein, States, supervisory bodies, activists, and businesses in the Americas can either invoke the Guiding Principles to strengthen initia- tives aimed at enhancing protection from corporate abuses or refrain from going beyond what they say. This article studies how those dynamics have been present in the Americas, by exploring the case law of the Inter-American Court and Commission on Human Rights, national action plans, and other State initiatives in the region, and whether corporate statements of businesses operating in the region have referred to the Principles.