U.S. Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses: A Case Study of Ford Motor Company in Argentina (2015)

Undergraduate: Olivia Abrecht

Faculty Advisor: Tim Marr
Department: American Studies

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This presentation will explore the responsibility of U.S. multinational corporations in gross human rights violations and the particularly complex and transnational obstacles to corporate accountability efforts they pose by focusing on a particularly important company in the history of the Untied States, Ford Motor Company.

This presentation hopes to expand our understanding of Ford Motor Company¿¿¿s history beyond the borders of the United States and incorporate the experience of workers at Ford that have gone overlooked. On May 20th, 2013, three former Ford Argentina executives were the first executives to be charged with crimes against humanity by an Argentine court for participating in the kidnapping and murder of 24 Ford workers during the last dictatorship.

This case will be contextualized within a global history of Ford Motor Company¿¿¿s complicity in human rights abuses that raise important questions about the responsibility of parent companies for the actions of their subsidiaries.

As the home state of Ford Motor Company and more multinationals that any other country, the United States has become a battle ground for debates about the responsibility of parent companies. Through the lens of the case against Ford in Argentina, this presentation will explore whether U.S. corporations can and should be held responsible in the United States for the actions of their subsidiaries abroad.