Hope in Dark Times? Key Takeaways from the 11th Session of Negotiations for a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights
A range of expert reports point to the central role of corporations in enabling the Gaza genocide, causing and prolonging the climate crisis, incentivising and contributing to attacks on environmental and land defenders, alongside widespread pollution and biodiversity loss...
Trócaire participated in the Eleventh Session of the negotiations at the UN in Geneva in October… Overall, the conduct and outcomes of the session offered hope of progress on curbing corporate power...
Global South back in force
Voices from the Global South were largely absent… This year was different, with active mobilisation (including a protest against corporate complicity in the Gaza genocide)… The opening statement delivered by Ramona Margarita Domingo of CPO… called for respect for indigenous self-determination and for recognition of ‘the interdependence between human beings and Mother Earth’....
The empty chair – where was Ireland?
For the eleventh time, the European Union failed to approve a negotiating mandate… Ireland… had no representatives at the Eleventh Session.
Human rights the priority
Quelvin Jimenez of the Xinka Parliament made a strong argument for putting international human rights obligations above trade and investment agreements in an intervention on Article 14. Citing examples of mining companies bringing lawsuits against Guatemala under… ISDS mechanisms… he outlined how poorer states are forced to choose between paying... large companies or permitting mining operations ... even when they violate indigenous rights or environmental laws...
Fears of corporate capture continue
A recurring concern… is corporate capture… One aspect relates to the negotiations themselves... highlighted by civil society during the 11th Session, including via a short protest in the negotiating chamber… Another facet ... relates to the eventual implementation ... Article 16… was targeted for removal or weakening in a concerted attack led by Gulf States....
A hopeful path forward?
Following eleven years of slow and uneven progress, the treaty process is now advancing with unprecedented speed… The document contained important elements such as joint and several liability… and more flexibility on jurisdiction for victims.