Regional consultation in Latin America on a Treaty on Human Rights and Business

FIDH and ESCR-Net are organising a Latin America regional consultation for civil society organisations (CSOs) from May 15th to 17th in Mexico City, as part of the Treaty Initiative project.

This third regional consultation, organised in Latin America together with PODER, brings together members of CSOs, activists, including grassroots groups and representatives of affected people, from 13 countries across Latin America, together with legal practitioners from the Initiative’s Legal Group to hold strategic discussions on CSO priorities for the forthcoming UN treaty on human rights and business, as well as to plan related advocacy strategies  activities at national, regional and international level. 

During the meeting, participants from civil society will present the challenges they experience when seeking corporate accountability and their priorities for how the international treaty should respond to these challenges.

The consultation also aims to provide a space to develop common advocacy strategies to promote the adoption of a robust international treaty that will address the entire range of human rights abuses committed by transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

The CSO inputs at regional consultations, online consultations and written commentaries will all go toward producing submissions on the substance of a future treaty to the Intergovernmental Working Group during its second session in October 2016, as well as be available to all CSOs as a resource for them to consider the development of their own advocacy positions. The ultimate objective of the Treaty Initiative project is to ensure the concrete content proposals of the international treaty will reflect the needs and priorities of affected groups and civil society around the world.

This third regional consultation follows the earlier ones in Asia Pacific in May 2015 and in Africa in October 2015. Three participants from these two previous regional consultations will participate in the Latin America consultation, and will share their experiences, as well as their recent advocacy activities in their regions. They will also lead in the planning of cross-regional and global advocacy activities in the lead up to the second session of the Intergovernmental Working Group in October.

 For more information please contact Dominic Renfrey (drenfrey@escr-net.org) or Marion Cadier (mcadier@fidh.org). See the project webpage at: 
www.escr-net.org/corporateaccountability/treatyinitiative