Holding corporations from middle countries accountable for human rights violations: a case study of the Vietnamese company investment in Cambodia

Land grabbing in poor countries by transnational corporations has been increasing, causing great concern over human rights violations in countries where states often lack the ability or will to regulate the conduct of foreign-owned companies. Civil society organizations have played a significant role in attempts to hold companies from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries accountable for human rights violations by their subsidiaries in poor countries. However, civil society pressure for accountability from companies whose home base is in non-OECD, middle-income, countries is rare. This paper explores the human rights impacts of the Cambodian operations of Vietnam’s Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) company, and how affected communities and NGOs in Cambodia have tried to hold HAGL accountable for its wrongdoing through approaching the Office of the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation. This is an initial attempt to examine how civil society and affected communities have challenged a Vietnamese company with no prior record of engaging with players from outside its home territory about the human rights impacts of its investments in Cambodia.

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