The Corporate Accountability Working Group (CAWG) of the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), together with FIDH, have been in the process of undertaking a two year project to consult with our members and partners in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America about the forthcoming UN treaty on human rights and business. In the process we have worked with over one hundred and fifty activists, groups representing affected people and others in civil society to support them to design their own priorities for the treaty. The process has supported the development of advocacy positions for civil society in these regions, and has established coordinated advocacy alliances at the regional and national level.   The consultation process has also provided invaluable opportunities for members of the Treaty Initiative project's Legal Group (LG) to listen to the challenges civil society faces when addressing corporate-related human rights violations. Members of the LG are members and partners of ESCR-Net and FIDH, and reflect gender and geographic balance.

The LG has led the development of legal resources (referred to as 'Building Blocks') that civil society can use to develop their own advocacy positions in relation to the treaty process. Each Building Block is made up of two documents, a 'Brief' and a more refined 'Proposal'. The objective of the Briefs was to outline options for how elements of the treaty could be designed to address the human rights violations and legal gaps CSOs have identified during the consultation. As such, the Briefs contain some early options in each area to facilitate further consultation. The Proposals further refine the inputs provided in consultations into more specific suggestions for the design of the treaty.

Below are the draft proposals to support ESCR-Net and FIDH members and partners in the process of developing their own submissions and advocacy statements in the lead up to the second meeting of the UN's Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) between October 24-28, 2016. The IGWG is tasked with leading the negotiations towards development of the forthcoming UN treaty on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

Building Blocks

• Proposals (Closed for comment after August 30, 2016)

• Access to Effective Remedies
• Access to Information and Participation
• Corporate Criminal Liability
• Corporate Legal Responsibility to Respect Human Rights
• Extraterritorial Obligations
• Human Rights Due Diligence
• Parent Company Liability (coming soon)
• Primacy of Human Rights
• Remedial Mechanisms
• Rights of Indigenous People (Open for review by Indigenous Peoples' organisations)
• Scope of the Treaty

Process for Reviewing Draft Proposals

The draft proposals listed below are also available for review by the Treaty Initiative's Review Committee between August 10 - 30, 2016. Any reviewer interested to provide constructive critique and comment should proceed using the following instructions:

1. Download the draft Proposal you wish to review

2. Using tracked changes, provide direct edits into the text that would improve the Proposal (with references).  Provide comments if you prefer, however direct text edits would be more valuable to the project.

3. Return the draft Proposal with your edits to: drenfrey@escr-net.org

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• Briefing Papers (Closed for comment after December 31, 2015)
  
  
  • Extraterritorial obligations
  • Human rights due diligence
  • Direct corporate obligations
  • Parent company liability
  • Remedial mechanisms
  • Right to effective remedies
  • Right to information
  • Rights of Indigenous People
  • Scope of the treaty