Developing principles of corporate human rights due diligence for outer space use and exploration: A critical evaluation

Abstract

Corporations are predicted to dominate outer space use and exploration for the foreseeable future. With tentative plans in development for humans to live and work permanently on celestial bodies, what responsibilities will corporations have to observe human rights? It is thought that reform of outer space law is needed to embrace non-state actors to not only delineate their precise legal status but also their rights and responsibilities in outer space. Not only would this pronouncement of rights and responsibilities provide transparency and certainty for corporations, but also for ‘humankind’ as business enterprises such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and the Sierra Nevada Corporation endeavour to make the first leap to establish human communities on celestial bodies. This article will consider the extent to which corporations will need to embed human rights due diligence in their activities on celestial bodies and what measures they will need to adopt to assess, mitigate and remediate human rights violations.