A/HRC/8/16 page 10 part and parcel of due diligence for ensuring that companies respect human rights. While there are no guarantees that acting with such due diligence will protect a company from legal liability or public allegations, it should go a long way in improving the company’s ability to recognize and act on risks of complicity, and to highlight to stakeholders that it is serious about not contributing to the abuses of others. B. Guidance from law 33. Owing to the relatively limited case history in relation to companies rather than individuals, and given the variations in definitions of complicity within different legal contexts, it is not possible to specify exacting tests for what constitutes complicity even within the legal sphere. The Special Representative notes that the clearest guidance comes from international criminal law and the cases on aiding and abetting. These cases exhibit several key principles that can form the basis of useful guidance for companies.16 International criminal law is also relevant because it can influence domestic criminal and non-criminal standards. 1. Guidance from legal standards: aiding and abetting under international criminal law 34. The jurisdiction of ad hoc international criminal tribunals, such as the War Crimes Tribunals after the Second World War, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) has applied only to natural persons, not legal persons such as companies. The permanent International Criminal Court (ICC) also has this feature.17 Caution should be exercised, therefore, when analogizing standards from individuals to companies. Nevertheless, international criminal law standards discussed in these cases are important for considerations of corporate complicity for at least two reasons. First, these standards can provide guidance to domestic criminal courts, some of which allow for criminal prosecution of companies. Second, international criminal law can directly influence domestic non-criminal legal proceedings involving companies. 16 There are other ways in which involvement with another who commits a crime is prohibited in international criminal law. Examples include joint criminal enterprise and superior responsibility. Joint criminal enterprise criminalizes participation with others for a common plan, design or purpose to commit an international crime. Those who participate in such a group and take actions intentionally to bring about the common plan can be guilty. Superior responsibility criminalizes the failure of either a military or civilian superior to carry out their duty to prevent or punish the crimes committed by a subordinate. 17 Pursuant to article 123 of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, seven years after the entry into force of the Statute, the Secretary-General of the United Nations will convene a Review Conference. Such review will take place in 2009, and some have signalled that the idea of including legal persons in the jurisdiction of the Court might be re-proposed for discussion.