Ten Key Proposals for the Treaty: A Legal Resource for Advocates and Diplomats Engaging with the UN Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises

Author(s): 
ESCR-Net and FIDH

ESCR-Net and FIDH, who have jointly run the Treaty Initiative for two years, have launched a legal resource document for advocates and diplomats involved in the UN process to develop a new treaty to address human rights abuses involving the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

The 'Ten Key Proposals for the Treaty' publication contains proposals relating to critical issues like the primacy of human rights over trade and investment laws, the scope of the treaty (including options for how the treaty could navigate the polarized debates of whether or not to include domestic businesses) and how the treaty might address the international human rights responsibilities of corporations. This timely resource also covers vital issues like participation and access to information, human rights due diligence, extraterritorial obligations corporate criminal liability and the critical issue of access to justice, including the key elements of potential new international mechanism to address human rights abuses involving corporations.

Ten Key Proposals is the designed to directly respond to the concerns of civil society consultations, including representatives of affected communities, who expressed their priorities for the forthcoming UN treaty during 3 day consultations held in Africa, Asia and Latin America, throughout 2015-16, as well as online consultations with other organisations as well during this time.  In total over 150 civil society organisations were consulted in the process of designing the Ten Key Proposals.

Read the full publication here.