"Extraterritorial obligations in relation to TNCs/OBEs discussed during second day of IGWG on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises", 25 Oct 2016

The second day of the Intergovernmental Working Group consisted of a panel on Primary obligations of States.  The main theme discussed was on extraterritorial obligations in relation to TNCs and other Business Enterprises (OBEs)...In the evening meeting, one of the highlights was in relation to limiting competition between states with regards to investments and investors...The important message to be retained from today’s meetings is perhaps that currently, companies’ reponsibilities are monitored by soft mechanisms...Closing the day, in the final contribution from the panel, David Bilschitz called on the IGWG to remember the foundation of human rights and that the UDHR calls for all organs of society to respect human rights, and that includes all actors with the ability to abuse human rights, including corporations.  He added, in defence of the idea for a robust international mechanism to implement the Treaty, that sometimes extraterritorial jurisdiction fails without a complementary international system to ensure accountability and remedy for affected people.