Chapter 1 • International Human Rights Law and the Role of the Legal Professions: A General Introduction States’ responsibility to provide protection and redress for victims of abuses of power will be dealt with in some detail in Chapter 15 of this Manual. Whenever bound by international human rights law, States have a strict legal obligation to guarantee the effective protection of human rights to all persons within their jurisdiction. States’ legal duty to protect human rights implies an obligation to prevent, investigate and punish human rights violations, as well as to restore rights whenever possible or provide compensation. States may also have a legal duty not only to provide protection against human rights violations committed by public authorities, but also to ensure the existence of adequate protection in their domestic law against human rights violations committed between private individuals. 3. Business Corporations and Human Rights In recent years there has been wide discussion of the question whether, and to what extent, entities other than States, such as business corporations, could and should be held legally responsible for not complying with rules of international human rights law in the exercise of their various activities. Whilst it is clear from the preceding sub-section that States themselves may have a duty to ensure that their domestic law also offers adequate remedies against serious human rights violations that may be committed by private individuals, this reasoning would appear to be equally applicable to the activities of business corporations. However, this is not, of course, the same as saying that these corporations are themselves incurring international legal responsibility for any wrongful acts. The discussion at the international level on the legal responsibility of business corporations to guarantee human rights offers a wealth of ideas concerning, inter alia, standards to protect workers from abuses or the environment from unnecessary damage and destruction. However, the development of the law in this important area is still very much in its infancy, and the arguments put forward at this stage belong primarily to the field of lex ferenda. Since the aim of this Manual is to explain the legal duties of States themselves under international law, no further consideration will be devoted to the possible legal responsibilities of business corporations to protect human rights. However, judges, prosecutors and lawyers may well be confronted with these problems in the exercise of their professional duties at the domestic level. In addition to any duties business corporations may have to protect individual rights and the environment under domestic law, it might therefore be useful for members of the legal professions to be aware of the fact that discussions are taking place at the international level and that Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers 19