ESCR-Net encouraged by United Nations’ step towards addressing corporate-related human rights violations

Publish Date: 
Tuesday, July 1, 2014

The Corporate Accountability Working Group (CAWG) of the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) released a public statement stating the CAWG “broadly welcomes the establishment of an open-ended intergovernmental working group by the UN Human Rights Council,” which passed the UN Human Rights Council (‘the Council’) on Thursday, June 26, the penultimate day of the Council’s XXVIth session. The CAWG noted in their statement that the creation of the intergovernmental working group is particularly promising from the perspective of better “clarifying extraterritorial obligations to regulate corporations overseas”. Further, the CAWG is “encouraged to see the Human Rights Council take further steps towards developing stronger protections for people affected by corporate-related human rights violations.”

Forty-eight hours before the resolution passed the Human Rights Council, the CAWG became aware that some states would only agree to support the proposal if the scope of the intergovernmental working group was limited to “business enterprises of transnational character.” The final resolution passed in this format prompting the CAWG to express their “fears that this restriction may diminish the ability for the working group to deliver an effective outcome which can advance systems of protection against corporate-related human rights violations.”

The passage of the resolution by the Council aligns with the principle feature of a joint civil society statement (the “Joint Statement”), signed by 610 organizations and 400 individuals, calling for the UN to establish a process leading to the elaboration of a treaty to address corporate-related human rights abuses. The Joint Statement arose in November 2013 during the ESCR-Net Peoples’ Forum on Human Rights & Business. Since then members and partners of CAWG - together with others in the Treaty Alliance - have supported the Joint Statement by conducting intensive advocacy in many countries, and at the United Nations in Geneva.

Together with several other leading proponents of the initiative to develop a binding treaty to address corporate human rights violations, ESCR-Net co-founded an international alliance of civil society groups called the Treaty Alliance at the beginning of 2014.  The Treaty Alliance has coordinated lobbying efforts in Geneva and in the national capitals of more than 20 Council member-countries.

The CAWG members and others engaging in national-level advocacy have sought support from governments for the Council resolution proposing the establishment of the intergovernmental working group with a mandate to develop a treaty, including many who ultimately supported the resolution on Thursday.  The resolution passed the Human Rights Council with the support of 20 countries, from Latin America, Asia and Africa, on the penultimate day of the XXVIth session. Fourteen countries voted against the initiative, including all EU states, the US, UK, Japan and Korea. A further thirteen countries abstained.

The CAWG is one of six ESCR-Net working groups, made up of 75 of ESCR-Net's 270 members. The CAWG members include social movements, civil society organizations and individual activists all working on corporate accountability issues. To read the full statement please visit here.

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