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In 2014, a people’s victory was celebrated at the United Nations Human Rights Council: the adoption of Resolution 26/9 which established a new Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) to develop an international legally binding instrument to regulate transnational corporations (TNCs) and other companies with respect to human rights.
During the seventh session of IGWG this year, from 25 to 29 October 2021 in Geneva (which will be virtual and in-person), negotiations will continue based on the 2020 2nd Revised Draft, the 2019 Revised Draft, the 2018 Zero Draft, the Elements Paper presented in 2017 and the results of the three previous sessions of the IGWG.
Once again social movements are preparing a parallel virtual Week of Mobilisation, preceded by advocacy efforts online, in capital cities and at regional levels around the world, led by Friends of the Earth member groups and allies.
Join us in this historic process towards ending corporate impunity – when business actions abroad lead to human rights violations and environmental crimes that go unpunished.
Companies systematically put profits before the environment and people’s rights. Many TNCs are richer and more powerful than the states that should be regulating them in public interest. Too often big business captures political decision making spaces, such as UN negotiations, and in so doing shapes environmental policies to suit its interests. Businesses are too well protected and rarely held to account for their abuses.
We need a legally binding treaty to pave the way for justice for victims and to hold corporations to account. Relying on businesses to voluntarily regulate themselves simply does not work.
The answer? Rights for people, rules for business.
In this e-toolkit for activists Friends of the Earth International provides its member groups, allies, civil society organizations and interested public with resources for action. Join us in our mobilization and advocacy efforts for a binding treaty to stop corporate impunity and hold TNCs to account for human rights violations.
“It is a time for a legally binding instrument to control transnational corporations with respect to human rights. A treaty that also gives victims of corporate abuses access to justice where there is none and challenges the economic and political power of TNCs”
Lucia Ortiz, Friends of the Earth International.
This toolkit has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents are the sole responsibility of Friends of the Earth International and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union.
In June 2014 the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 26/9 to establish a legal instrument to ensure transnational corporations respect human rights. Thus the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group of the United Nations Human Rights Council was created and its first session ran from July 6-9, 2015. Two further rounds of official treaty negotiations followed in 2016 and 2017. For the last four years Friends of the Earth International, as part of the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity and the Treaty Alliance, has been present at the official negotiations and taken part in the activities organized by social movements and organizations around the world, campaigning for a binding Treaty. Real World Radio has and continues to cover these negotiations and mobilizations. Here we present RWR’s work from the last seven years:
The materials listed below – for download, printing and distribution – were produced by Friends of the Earth International or articulated by the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power or by the Treaty Alliance to facilitate popular education about the UN treaty process and the advocacy efforts to be taken at national or regional level.
FoEI member groups can contact to request updates or support for translation into local language.
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