This week (16-20 December) the 10th session of historical negotiations are taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, at the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations. The negotiations have the mandate to regulate the activities of transnational corporations (TNCs) under human rights law through a legally binding treaty. 

The consistent participation of members of communities affected by activities of transnational corporations, civil society organisations, trade unions and social movements makes it one of the most strongly supported processes in the history of UN human rights negotiations. 

Expectations were raised this year with the approval of the first additional resolution at the HRC bringing additional resources and capacity to carry out the negotiations. The session, however, came under threat just months prior. Originally scheduled for October 2024, it was abruptly rescheduled to late December, imposing profound logistical and financial burdens on the attending civil society groups and states from the Global South. 

Zakithi Sibandze from the Rural Women’s Assembly explains “This decision is a direct attack on Global South voices. Postponing the negotiations to December, a time when many in the Global South are engaged in cultural celebrations and family traditions, is deeply insensitive and exclusionary. It is Global South voices who have, for far too long, been marginalised at the seat of power and this decision is emblematic of that.”

Even so, the Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples’ Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity remains determined to make the demands of its over 260 organisations heard. One such being the scope of the treaty which remains a contested point in the negotiations... 

A delegation of the Global Inter-parliamentary Network (GIN) organised a side event to discuss the complementarity between national legislation to regulate TNCs and the Binding treaty process. Alírio Uribe, Member of Parliament in Colombia; Federico Fagioli, Provincial Senator in Argentina and Sonia Gutierrez Raguay, Member of Parliament in Guatemala emphasised in their expositions that “the Binding Treaty should serve as an inspiration to advance domestic regulations that strengthen national legal systems and vice versa. This is especially important in a global context of interrelated crises that require immediate attention and of which transnational corporations are central actors as instigators and beneficiaries.”...