Guide on extraterritorial obligations

Publish Date: 
Friday, September 12, 2014

ESCR-Net CAWG launched a new practitioners’ guide to support the interpretation and application of extraterritorial obligations (ETOs) in the context of corporate human rights violations. The Corporate Accountability Working Group of ESCR-Net, led by members including Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), Inclusive Development International (IDI) and Justiça Global, has developed a new resource for human rights practitioners called “Global Economy, Global Rights – A Practitioners’ Guide for interpreting human rights obligations in the global economy”. The Working Group appreciates the contributions of Oliver De Schutter and Sylvain Aubry to this project. 

The resource was launched at a gathering of outgoing and incoming UN Special Procedure Mandate Holders in Geneva, on September 2, 2014, co-hosted by ESCR-Net, the Geneva Academy and FES. Joint communications and other activities of the Mandate Holders have helped to advance the collective actions of ESCR-Net members and working groups, notably with regard to the extraterritorial impacts of the steel project in India planned by South Korean steel giant, POSCO.

This resource is designed to support and inform the application of ETOs in the work of UN Special Procedure Mandate Holders and other agencies, including the UN treaty bodies. The resource synthesizes and analyses the interpretation of ETOs in the context of corporate human rights violations from the perspective of UN treaty bodies. The resource is built on the concluding observations of UN treaty bodies issued between 2007 and 2014, as well as the general comments issued by UN treaty bodies from 2000 onwards.

Download the guide in English here. The guide is also available in Spanish here