This week saw the first round of substantive negotiations on the Draft Zero of the treaty. In the Human Rights Council room...Many states proclaimed their support for the UN binding treaty process, as did Church actors at global, European, and Latin American level, joined by academia and the European Parliament whom all spoke out in favor of stronger international regulation of business. We welcome the French intervention on Article 9 relating to prevention. The EU has been unhelpful in the negotiations on the content of the Draft Zero, but France stepped forward to detail the content of its newly adopted Duty of Vigilance law...Where other states have offered drafting suggestions to improve the draft text, the EU has been silent....We have witnessed ourselves the extensive contributions from other states and civil society in the negotiation room of the Human Rights Council. Now we want the EU to match its words about protection of human rights defenders with a change in its approach to the upcoming fifth session of the OEIGWG.