Multinational corporations are companies that operate across national borders. In recent decades, these companies have gained increasing power and influence in the global economy.
According to human-rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, companies have a huge impact on the lives of the communities where they operate. Sometimes this is positive, with companies providing jobs or technological advancements that help local populations. But far too often, corporations take advantage of weak and poorly enforced regulations in countries with limited resources. This frequently leads to significant human rights abuses.
For over a decade, the United Nations has formally recognized that businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights. However, at the national and international levels, there are few laws that force companies to protect human rights and to hold them accountable when they fail to do so, according to Human Rights Watch.
Amnesty International has documented that some of the worst abuses occur in the extractives sector. This business sector includes companies that extract natural resources, such as mining companies like the one featured in Carpentaria. As companies compete with each other to extract scarce and precious resources, they often pollute the land and water and disrupt traditional livelihoods, such as farming. Amnesty adds that the impact on Indigenous and Aboriginal peoples can be particularly severe, as their way of life and identity are often tied to their land. Affected communities often do not have access to information on the impacts of business operations and they are excluded from decision-making about projects that impact their territories and ways of life.
While Carpentaria is fictional, the novel aptly portrays the way that international companies commit human rights abuses in Indigenous territories.
