Over 100 social movements and civil society organizations representing hundreds of thousands workers, peasants, community and indigenous peoples have welcomed the historic call by nine countries together with the African and Arab Groups for binding obligations on Transnational corporations. The historic petition led by the Ecuadorian government at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday, September 13th, marks a departure from reliance on voluntary mechanisms that have marked the corporate social responsibility debate and which have facilitated systematic corporate impunity. The petition, supported by the African Group, the Arab Group, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, emphasizes that the United Nations Human Rights Council’s 2011 non-binding “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” will remain without consequence unless legally binding instruments create a framework for states to regulate and sanction the often illegal actions of Transnational Corporations.