The UN Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights has convened intersessional regional consultations among States between April and mid-June 2023.
The consultations will be held by the Friends of the Chair, a group of States tasked to advance the process for a Legally Binding Treaty (LBI) to remedy and prevent abuses of human rights by transnational corporations. The objective of the consultations is to advance work on the draft Legally Binding Instrument with a focus on Articles 1-14.
The outcomes, along with the concrete textual proposals and comments submitted by States during the eighth session, will be used to update and consolidate the text. The Fourth Draft Version is expected by the end of July 2023.
Following the call to stakeholders for written inputs, members of the CIDSE Corporate Power working group held consultations with partner organisations from the Global South to shape CIDSE’s input.
You can find our contribution to the debate as well as recommendations on the 3rd revised draft document of the Legally Binding Instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
Through commentary and additions to the text, we want to ensure that the upcoming Fourth Draft can effectively accomplish the double objectives of preventing human rights abuses, particularly by transnational corporations, and ensuring effective remedy and justicefor those affected.
In addition to specific textual suggestions, CIDSE is asking State Parties to consider the following points throughout the text:
- Emphasise collective rights, in particularespecially those of Indigenous Peoples and other communities who often are on the receiving hand of corporate abuse.
- Cover environmental and climate-related abuses and violations, in order to advance a text that is fit for the challenges our common home faces.
- A victim-centred text is needed, one that goes beyond a company’s obligation to prevent human right abuses to include provisions for meaningful access to transnational justice for those affected.
Contact: Giuseppe Cioffo, Corporate Regulation Officer, CIDSE (Cioffo (at)cidse.org)
Cover photo credit: CIDSE