밀양 송전선 분쟁에 대한 기업인권적 접근

The Disputes between Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and local residents in Milyang City over the Construction of Extremely High Voltage(765kV) above-ground Power Cable (hereinafter ‘Milyang disputes’) have been waged for more than 8 years, resulting in huge damages on both sides. This paper tries to analytically understand the disputes and to propose an alternative way to solve it, by adopting business and human rights approach rather than environmental justice perspective or corporate social responsibility(CSR) approach. After I clarified the meaning of the business and human rights approach depending on the experiences of international community in dealing with transnational corporations, I applied it in Milyang disputes and drew its implications. Ultimately I argue that such an approach can and should be universally adopted in the evaluation of business activities in Korean as well as in the global society. As late as 2000s, when UN Framework on Business and Human Rights(2008) and Guiding Principles for its implementation(2008) was endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council, the business and human rights approach emerged as an important tool to tackle the negative impacts caused by the transnational corporations. These texts recognize the corporate responsibility to respect human rights and proposed several practical ways to fulfill the responsibility. Their approach successfully received widespread support from intergovernmental organizations, business communities and NGOs, becoming an international standard to address the corporate negative impact on human rights. While applying the business and human rights approach to the Milyang disputes, I proved that KPECO failed to fulfill the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, by directly violating the human rights of local peasants such as right to property and right to participation in the development project affecting community, and by being complicated in the violation of rights to liberty and security committed by policemen, private security companies and contractors. These human rights violations said, I proposed what kind of sanctions may follow, emphasizing social sanctions. Overall I argue that the business and human rights approach is very useful and powerful tool to interpret and solve the Milyang disputes. In addition I argue that the business and human rights approach defined and adopted here can and should be mobilized in evaluating other business activities, for it has many advantages over other alternatives: it may overcome the limitations of legal or CSR approaches; it allows international solidarity and normative approach; it strongly justifies the resistance of the victims, and; it offers practical recommendation for government and corporations as well in addressing business and human rights issues.