Corporate culpability: investigating and prosecuting Chiquita Brands International’s employees for human rights violations committed in Colombia

Thus far in its history, the International Criminal Court (“the Court”) has focused its attention on prosecuting government and military leaders. This paper addresses change in two ways, first, by considering whether the Court should pursue prosecutions against a new group of alleged offenders and second, by discussing efforts to amend the Court’s Statute so that corporations can be held criminally responsible for atrocity crimes. It uses the recent Communication submitted to the Court seeking the extension of the Prosecutor’s Office’s ongoing preliminary investigation in Colombia to include claims made against Chiquita Brands International, Inc. as a framework to explore whether the Court should expand its focus to include atrocity crimes committed by corporations and their employees. The paper also examines the current arguments in favour of extending the Court’s criminal liability to include corporations while specifically examining whether corporate amorality undermines the deterrent function of international criminal law. The paper concludes that the Court should make greater efforts to investigate and prosecute corporate actors for their involvement in human rights abuses. However, it cautions that the facts as they relate to Chiquita suggest that such efforts should not be concentrated on this case as it is unlikely that an investigation will result in a successful prosecution.