'ProDESC's PERSPECTIVE ON THE PUBLICATION OF THE PROPOSAL FOR A DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL ON CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY DUE DILIGENCE', 7 March 2022

[T]he Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project (ProDESC), a Mexican organisation that accompanies communities in the Global South in strategic litigation against transnational corporations, would like to point out some shortcomings of the proposal so that a grassroots approach can be incorporated into the process that follows, bringing voices from the ground, from local actors, which are still missing in this discussion... 

...It is important to underline that a regulation will only be as strong and effective as its effective application, so that recovering good practices from the application of similar regulations and, above all, filling the identified gaps provides relevant information for the legislators in charge of the construction of the Directive. An example of this is the French Duty of Vigilance Law, with cases already being litigated, which empirically shows the importance of designing legislation that clearly prevents human rights violations, including corporate accountability...

As a result of our experiences testing the French law in the accompaniment of the Unión Hidalgo case in Mexico, we can find positive aspects and challenges for further discussion in EU bodies:

1. INCLUSION OF ADMINISTRATIVE SANCTIONS AND CIVIL LIABILITY...
2. PROTECTION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS...
3. BURDEN OF PROBE...
4. ACCESS TO INFORMATION AND RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND COMMUNITIES...
5. SPECIFIC GUIDELINES...