Proposals
The Corporate Accountability Working Group (CAWG) of the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), together withe 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 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 Legal Group has led the development of legal resources that civil society can use to develop their own advocacy positions in relation to the treaty process. Below are the draft proposals for use by ESCR-Net and FIDH Members in the process of developing their positions in preparation for the second meeing of the UN's Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group tasked with leading the negotiations towards development of the forthcoming UN treaty on human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
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 track 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
Draft Proposals
Access to Information and Participation
Corporate Legal Responsibility to Respect Human Rights
Parent Company Liability (coming soon)
Rights of Indigenous People (Open for review by Indigenous Peoples' organisations)
Please Consider the Following When Reviewing the Draft Proposals
- The draft Proposals are NOT the institutional positions of ESCR-Net or FIDH Members, or necessarily the views of the contributing author(s) for the Treaty Initiative Legal Group.
- The draft Proposals are primarily designed as a resource for a broad section of the corporate accountability community, not primarily a legal or academic audience.
- The suggested 'components of the proposal' are an attempt to propose constructive legally and politically feasible options for consideration by the UN Intergovernmental Working Group that respond to the needs expressed by ESCR-Net and FIDH Members throughout the consultations undertaken in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America (as well as seven online consultations) throughout 2015 and 2016.