“IACHR sets standards on "Business and Human Rights"”, 30^th January 2020

The Special Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) [has] published the Report, "Business and Human Rights: Inter-American Standards". [The Report is] an analysis of the reports, pronouncements, conventions and the judgments issued by the Inter-American System…in recent years on this matter.

It is the first time [the IACHR] has addresse[d] this issue directly, aim[ing] to "clarify, organize and develop...state duties and the effects that may be generated on companies in their compliance from the inter-American legal experience". 

During the process of preparing the report, representatives of the States and autonomous public bodies, civil society organizations, representatives of the academy and the business sector, among other stakeholders, participated. This report of the IACHR responds to a reiterated request from civil society to the security problems experienced by hundreds of environmental defenders in America and the various human rights violations that have been denounced by communities affected by national and transnational business projects...