For the first time, a clear mandate has been given to develop an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. A joint trade union statement highlights the importance of these negotiations.
The revised draft text that has been published by the Working Group is a clear attempt at a compromise to ensure that governments, business, trade unions and civil society collectively engage in meaningful and constructive dialogue to address the existing accountability gaps with respect to corporate human rights obligations. It provides further conceptual alignment with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to ensure complementarity. It incorporates both requirements for preventative measures as well as access to remedy, which are critical components in ensuring effective respect for international human rights law by transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Moreover, the new text provides for stronger protections for human rights defenders.
During the negotiations, the ITUC will continue to call for the following priorities to be strengthened:
- A broad scope covering all internationally recognised human rights, including fundamental workers’ and trade union rights, as defined by relevant international labour standards.
- The coverage of all business enterprises regardless of size, sector, operational context, ownership or structure.
- Parent company-based extraterritorial regulation and access to justice for victims of transnational corporate human rights violations in the home state of transnational corporations.
- Regulatory measures that require business to adopt and apply human rights due diligence policies and procedures.
- Reaffirmation of the applicability of human rights obligations to the operations of companies and their obligation to respect human rights.
- A strong international monitoring and enforcement mechanism.
