CIDSE's proposal to reinforce revised draft on proposed binding treaty on business & human rights
"Contribution to the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights," Oct 2019
This is a decisive moment for the process towards shaping a UN treaty that can bring value to global efforts towards preventing adverse human rights effects of business activities and providing access to justice for affected people and communities. The nature and impacts of global business require action at multiple levels. The treaty is urgently needed to help address gaps and insufficiencies in the global legal framework, which has not kept up with evolutions in the global economic and business reality, and to help redress the current imbalances between the rights and obligations of business...
...The text has evolved in its scope of application: the treaty would now apply to all business activities, with a particular emphasis on transnational activity...
...However, Article 5 of the revised draft on prevention limits the due diligence process to an enterprise’s contractual relationships, representing a significant step backwards from existing standards concerning business relationships. It is important that the treaty does not create perverse incentives for businesses to dispense with formal contracts with their suppliers...
We call on all States to consider the revised draft and to formulate constructive proposals for further elaboration at the 5th IGWG session. We believe that it is essential to move forward the negotiations on the text for the treaty, making significant advances in line with the urgency of numerous situations...