The 3rd session of the open-ended working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights took place in Geneva from 23-27 October 2017. The objective was to explore grounds for a possible UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights that might provide the first international legally binding rules for businesses. 

So far, the European institutions have not been speaking with one voice at the negotiations. What course did the discussions in Geneva take? Was there substantial progress? And how did the EU present itself in Geneva? 

It is against the background of these questions that a panel was invited to look at the negotiations from a European angle during a policy lunch co-hosted by sef: (Development and Peace Foundation) and CIDSE in Brussels on 20 November 2017.