or services by their business relationships.” 24 According to the accompanying commentary on the UNGPs‘ activities’ is said to include both‘ actions and omissions’, which further clarifies Broadspectrums’ responsibility to actively prevent human rights abuses within its sphere of influence. Given Broadspectrums’ extensive control, it can be argued that this stems to the entirety of the camp of Nauru. The abuses alleged to have occurred within Broadspectrum’ s sphere of influence are shown through the Nauru Files, a compilation of over 2000 leaked incident reports written by staff in Nauru, the reports document the most reoccurring incidents and ranks them from minor to critical in terms of severity. The files reveal multiple accounts of abuse including assaults, assaults on minors, sexual abuse and deteriorating conditions leading to self-harm attempts and child abuse. During 2015 there were 155 reports of threatened self-harm, 90 reports of abusive or aggressive behaviour and 105 accounts of assault including 57 assaults on minors. 25 Whilst the Nauru files detail human rights abuses which the private contractors failed to prevent and address, the Moss Review includes 20 pages of allegations of sexual, physical abuse and harassment by both service providers and detainees with 11 allegations involving Wilson security employees 26.
As can be seen here, private companies on Nauru have been complicit and directly contributed to human rights violations on Nauru, using the state of exception and the culture of secrecy, these TNCs have attempted to circumvent their human rights responsibilities. The question is why large TNCs would expose themselves to inevitable public backlash, which, incidentally, has occurred due to the release of the Amnesty international reports and the Nauru files. It can be argued that the answer is profit. According to research conducted by Amnesty International, the combined value of the contract to date is currently around $ 1.9 billion. This total is bolstered by the ability to place few resources into the island detention centre. As evidenced in multiple reports, the conditions within the camp are basic and would allow for the companies involved to maximise their profit by minimising their expenditure. In other words, sacrificing the security and health of the refugees in order to increase profit.
The Problem of Business and Human Rights
The situation in Nauru has again raised the debate regarding Business and Human rights, addressing the lack of accountability for large TNCs. The lack of accountability is primarily due
24
Ibid., principle 13( b)
25
Nick, Evershed, Ri, Liu, Paul, Farrell, and Helen, Davidson.“ The Nauru Files”, The Guardian No date, https:// www. theguardian. com / australia-news / ng-interactive / 2016 / aug / 10 / the-nauru-files-the lives-of-asylum-seekers-in-detention-detailed-in-a-unique-database-interactive
26
Phillip, Moss.“ Review into recent allegations relating to conditions and circumstances at the Regional Processing Centre of Nauru”, 2015, 23-42
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