"Diplomacy Wins on the Last Day of the IGWG in Geneva", 1 Nov 2016

The last day of the second session of the IGWG on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises started with a final panel on access to remedy, and then moved into the process of adopting the report of the session in the afternoon.  While often just a mere formality in such UN proceedings, the exchanges among states concerning the adoption of the draft meeting report was in a temporary state of high diplomatic tension...The nature of the discussion reflects the urgency with which South Africa wants the treaty process to proceed, and on the other side some reticence from states in support of the UNGPs implementation...Earlier in the day access to remedy was the main theme of the discussions...[A]dditional themes to the discussion includ[ed] the difficulties of establishing judicial remedies without separation of powers at the national level, and a prevailing lack of trust in national level courts...Civil society organisations mentioned several issues that are key to them, including abolishing the corporate veil...[and] recognis[ing] transnational corporations as one corporate group...