Global Interparliamentary Network
In support of the UN process for a Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations with respect to Human Rights
CALL OF PARLIAMENTARIANS WORLDWIDE
June 2014 marked a historical milestone in the resettlement of Transnational Corporation’s (TNCs) regulation back onto international agendas. The UN Human Rights Council established an Open Ended Inter-governmental Working Group (OEIGWG) for the development of a legally binding treaty on TNCs and other business enterprises with respect to human rights. The goal was to put an end to the global loopholes and ensure that companies are fully accountable for human rights violations and environmental crimes. The overcoming of current voluntary frameworks of social corporate responsibility represents a key steppingstone in order to make global economy fit for people’s rights and wellbeing and stop corporate impunity.
Whereas the OEIGWG held its third annual session on October 23-27, 2017 in order to continue the negotiations on the new instrument, the under signatories, as worldwide parliamentarians:
- Highlight that our planet needs the Binding Treaty to balance the unfair consequences of unregulated globalisation, which has generated asymmetries of power between States, communities, individuals and corporations in terms of access to justice and the protection of people’s human rights, especially in the poorest regions of the world;
- Applaud, therefore, the initiative of Ecuador and South Africa, and the efforts showed by other countries which are supporting the process towards the achievement of an international Binding Treaty to overcome transnational TNC and other business enterprises’ impunity;
- Welcome the open and participatory process that is being developed by the OEIGWG in which not only States, but also international organisations, civil society organisations, affected people, scholars and other relevant stakeholders are involved;
- Stress that the future Treaty should create specific mechanisms that strengthen both national judicial systems, as well as international cooperation and monitoring to reinforce State responsibility in providing victims’ access to remedy and prevent the reproduction of violations of human rights derived from TNCs operations. We stress the need for binding principles that protect human rights and guarantee corporate responsibility by means, among others, of legally enforceable due diligence obligations;
- Insist that this Treaty must play an important role in addressing worker’s concerns rooted in labour rights violations perpetrated by TNCs in global value chains. We share ITUC’s view that enforceability of labour standards is a sine qua non condition to restore imbalances between highly privileged investor rights and peoples’ labour and human rights.
Therefore we urge states, –and regional organisations such as the European Union–, to actively engage in this UN process and to work towards an effective and legally binding international instrument on TNCs and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, in order to ensure that people’s dignity, as enshrined by universal political, economic, social and cultural rights, is prioritised and guaranteed worldwide over private profits.
Gabi Zimmer
Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL President
Amir Khadir
Député à l’Assemblée Nationale du Quebec, Quebec Solidaire
Lilian Galán
Member of the Parliament of Uruguay, Frente Amplio
Helmut Scholz
Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL
Lola Sánchez Caldentey
Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL
Fathi Chamkhi
Member of the Parliament of Tunisia, Front Populaire
Inmaculada Rodríguez-Piñero
Member of the European Parliament, S&D
Ignazio Corrao
Member of the European Parliament, EFDD
Barbara Lochbihler
Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA
Anne-Marie Mineur
Member of the European Parliament, GUE/NGL
Charles Santiago
Member of the Parliament of Malaysia, Democratic Action Party
Jude Kirton-Darling
Member of the European Parliament, S&D
Sign our declaration and join us on this effort for a legally Binding instrument to ensure transnational corporations accountability for human rights violations and environmental crimes
And secure fair access to Justice for the victims
News
OHCHR released the elements for the binding treaty draft to be discussed in Geneva
UN Office for the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) has released this thursday a working document with the elements for the binding treaty draft to be discussed during the OEIWG on October 23-27 2017 in Geneva. The following document has been prepared in the framework of Resolution A/HRC/RES/26/9 (Resolution 26/9), “Elaboration of an international […]