In a letter in today’s Irish Times, a number of prominent Irish organisations have called specifically on Ireland and other EU states to engage more meaningfully in the current Geneva process in light of the ongoing harm to human rights globally connected with certain corporate activities.

[The letter states:]

In a year where we have seen the Amazon burning due to corporate greed, and the murder of hundreds of human rights defenders protecting their environment and land from corporations, it is imperative that Ireland supports a UN treaty to ensure transnational corporations respect human rights...

At present, there is no legally binding business and human rights regulation to stop this exploitation and abuse. Voluntary measures have failed to prevent abuses and are simply not strong enough...

We cannot expect corporations, many of which have more economic clout than the small countries they operate in, to happily regulate themselves without a strong global legal framework in place...

This week is a crucial opportunity to advance a binding UN treaty on business and human rights. Negotiations are taking place in Geneva from October 14th to 18th. This is a unique opportunity to put in place strong human rights protections for communities being threatened by corporations.