abusesaffiliationarrow-downarrow-leftarrow-rightarrow-upattack-typeburgerchevron-downchevron-leftchevron-rightchevron-upClock iconclosedeletedevelopment-povertydiscriminationdollardownloademailenvironmentexternal-linkfacebookfiltergenderglobegroupshealthC4067174-3DD9-4B9E-AD64-284FDAAE6338@1xinformation-outlineinformationinstagraminvestment-trade-globalisationissueslabourlanguagesShapeCombined Shapeline, chart, up, arrow, graphLinkedInlocationmap-pinminusnewsorganisationotheroverviewpluspreviewArtboard 185profilerefreshIconnewssearchsecurityPathStock downStock steadyStock uptagticktooltiptwitteruniversalityweb
Article

30 Oct 2016

Author:
International Service for Human Rights

Business and human rights treaty | Key issues start to crystallise but attention on the protection of human rights defenders remains inadequate

Governments met in Geneva from 24-28 October 2016 for the second round of a process to elaborate an international treaty to address human rights violations committed by transnational corporations and other business enterprises.  From here on referred to briefly as ‘the IGWG’, this session hosted diplomats, academics, representatives of business and over 100 activists, victims and other civil society actors from around the globe...While the conversations on the nature of any future treaty remain complex, they seem to have coalesced around a few key points. In particular, most civil society speakers called for the treaty to be monitored by a robust treaty body with the capacity, as with other human rights treaties, to investigate claims by States and individuals.  They called for the treaty to ensure State obligations to ensure access to information, to remove the corporate veil, and to refrain from adopting policy or legislation that allows – implicitly or explicitly – loopholes in the application of extraterritorial obligations or parent company liability...[T]here was a diversity of civil society opinions about using treaty bodies, or an international court, as the primary mechanism to provide international avenues for effective remedy.  States, for their part, pressed for further discussion of international arbitration, including investor-state dispute settlement, to be a more substantial part of the discussion...

Timeline

Privacy information

This site uses cookies and other web storage technologies. You can set your privacy choices below. Changes will take effect immediately.

For more information on our use of web storage, please refer to our Data Usage and Cookies Policy

Strictly necessary storage

ON
OFF

Necessary storage enables core site functionality. This site cannot function without it, so it can only be disabled by changing settings in your browser.

Analytics cookie

ON
OFF

When you access our website we use Google Analytics to collect information on your visit. Accepting this cookie will allow us to understand more details about your journey, and improve how we surface information. All analytics information is anonymous and we do not use it to identify you. Google provides a Google Analytics opt-out add on for all popular browsers.

Promotional cookies

ON
OFF

We share news and updates on business and human rights through third party platforms, including social media and search engines. These cookies help us to understand the performance of these promotions.

Your privacy choices for this site

This site uses cookies and other web storage technologies to enhance your experience beyond necessary core functionality.