"UN Treaty Talks Day 3 and 4: From business as usual to enhanced corporate responsibility for human rights", 28 Oct 2016

Off to a busy start, discussions on developing internationally binding regulation in the field of business and human rights, also known as the UN Treaty, intensified during days three and four. Wednesday and Thursday focused on obligations and responsibilities for businesses and, respectively, approaches and criteria for the future definition of the Treaty’s scope – a compromise item introduced after a major divide arose between EU and other States during 2015’s negotiations, due to EU’s request for an enlarged scope...The debate on day three looked at different avenues to apply legal obligations directly on corporations, going into in-depth judicial detail regarding liability mechanisms...The fourth day of discussions brought more engagement from EU and Member States, as well as quality interventions on the Treaty’s content and on possible solutions to access to remedy issues. But although high-level content discussions are progressing in Geneva, much more is needed for the Treaty to make the shift from collection of ideas to internationally binding regulation on business and human rights...