"UN Treaty Talks Day 5: Morality cannot be legislated, but behaviour can be regulated", 2 Nov 2016

The last day of the IGWG on Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and Other Business Enterprises (OBEs) focused on access to remedies and on approving the meeting report.  The morning panel on Lessons learned and challenges to access to remedy (selected cases from different sectors and regions) offered a space for representatives of civil society and experts to discuss potential avenues to improving access to justice for victims of corporate abuse...The afternoon session revolved around the meeting report. After brief, but tense, discussions among States – with Russia together with EU, and South Africa on opposite ends of the debate regarding the Chair’s mandate in preparing the 2017 session – the room reached a compromise agreement.  The draft report approved ad referendum includes a mention that next meeting will particularly focus on operative paragraph three of Resolution 26/9, stating that the Chair would “prepare elements for the draft legally binding instrument for substantive negotiations” for 2017’s IGWG discussions...Although relevant progress was made on the UN Treaty, most important decisions and discussions still lie ahead...