In the recent years, scandals involving multinational companies have proliferated, putting into question the morality of our economic system...

[T]he pandemic has upended our certainties and provided the opportunity to re-assess our world system and spark a just transition...

[M]ultinational companies [...] can use: the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism, a private tribunal system through which they can bring to court any state, claiming back lost benefits because states passed social or environmental laws...

As cardinals, we [...] have a strong moral obligation to speak out... Guided by our Catholic values, we ... join[ed] over 110 bishops to call on governments to better regulate private corporations...

Our call comes after a positive development in this direction: the announcement by the EU commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders in May of a mandatory and robust legislation on human rights due diligence. 

Under no condition should this process be stalled...

[W]e believe the laws should include enhanced access to justice for victims, in order to comply with the states duty to protect them against corporate abuses...

[W]e call on all states to engage in the UN negotiations for a legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations...