February 26, 2018

This document provides inputs to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) and the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (SR ESCER) for their development of a report that examines standards and criteria related to Business and Human Rights (BHR) under the Inter-American System…In this submission, Conectas and Dejusticia will discuss access to remedies in judicial and non-judicial settings, human rights due diligence, indigenous rights, public-private partnerships, State-owned enterprises and financing and development…States working to implement the UNGPs must comply with their existing human rights obligations. Under Inter-American jurisprudence, States Parties to the Convention have long had the obligation to not just respect the rights and freedoms enshrined under the Convention, but also “to ‘ensure’ the free and full exercise of the rights recognized by the Convention to every person subject to its jurisdiction. This obligation implies the duty of States Parties to organize the governmental apparatus and, in general, all the structures through which public power is exercised, so that they are capable of juridically ensuring the free and full enjoyment of human rights.”…