"EU and UN Instruments must work in tandem to guarantee justice", 13 Oct 2022

The UN Treaty aimed at regulating the activities of transnational corporations and other businesses... and the proposed EU Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence (CSDDD) are two legal instruments currently under negotiations.

The instruments, while different in nature, are comparable since both include provisions to regulate companies to respect human rights, by preventing and ceasing their negative impacts on people and planet, as well as rules to provide remedy and access to justice, with the UN Treaty having an important focus on transnational obstacles to justice...

When the proposal for a European Due Diligence law was published in Feb 2022, it presented the opportunity to compare the two instruments substantively. CIDSE, ECCJ, ECCHR, FOEE, FIAN, FIDH and SOMO commissioned an expert study that analysed the division of EU and member state legislative competences on the LBI, as well as three content areas of overlap between the two instruments...

[A] mixed agreement for a negotiating mandate, with the Commission negotiating on behalf - and in strict consultation with Member States - should be the next step for EU decision-makers.

The CSDDD and the LBI are different in terms of substance as well as political and legal context. The nature of CSDDD tends towards a narrow approach that regulates a more detailed corporate duty and a limited set of enforcement and access to justice provisions, whereas the treaty is a multilateral instrument including a much broader set of elements...

The analysis demonstrates clearly that one instrument cannot simply replace the other, but rather are complementary. The LBI would not only mean a broader community of states regulating a duty to respect human rights and provide access to justice, it would also make the CSDDD much more effective on a global scale by aligning companies’ obligations across the world...

To ensure future coherence, and strong protection for affected people, it is crucial for the EU to formally enter into the negotiations in the Open-ended intergovernmental working group (IGWG), mandated to develop the UN Treaty... The division of competences and the comparison of content within this study speak clearly to the need for a coordinated EU response, based on a negotiating mandate. It is the only route to advance and improve the discussions in Geneva but also to make sure that the European Directive is fit for purpose and able to tackle the challenges it set out to address for people and planet...