On shaping the EU’s position on the UN binding instrument on business and human rights, in particular on access to remedy and the protection of victims
DEVE-AD-751900
Committee on Development · Rapporteur: Miguel Urbán Crespo
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The Committee on Development calls on the Committee on Foreign Affairs to include its suggestions in a resolution on the EU's position on a UN binding instrument on business and human rights.¶ It asks the Council to give the Commission an ambitious mandate to negotiate the UN legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and human rights, with strong enforcement, monitoring and access to justice.¶ It wants the treaty to cover all transnational corporations and their value chains, include extraterritorial regulation, protect victims and human rights defenders, and provide safeguards for micro, small and medium enterprises.¶¶¶ It says the treaty should strengthen the EU's corporate sustainability due diligence directive and that due diligence should not exempt companies from liability.¶¶
Committee position. The Committee on Development asks the Committee on Foreign Affairs to incorporate its suggestions into its motion for a resolution, calling for an ambitious EU mandate to negotiate a UN binding instrument on transnational corporations and human rights with strong enforcement, access to justice and protection for victims.¶¶
Key points
- Regrets that the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are not enforceable and that their poor implementation is largely due to their non-binding character.¶
- Notes with concern the asymmetry between the rights and obligations of transnational corporations, especially in investment protection treaties.¶
- Underlines the urgent need for binding and enforceable international norms for transnational corporations and their global value chains.¶
- Recalls rising abuses of workers' rights worldwide, citing the International Trade Union Confederation Rights Index.¶
- Calls for transparency, access to justice and effective remedy for victims, especially vulnerable groups, and cites cases such as Mariana, Brumadinho, Rana Plaza, Marikana and Chevron-Texaco.¶
- Urges the Commission to provide safeguards and exemptions for micro, small and medium enterprises in the negotiations.¶
- Calls on the Council to adopt an ambitious mandate for the Commission to engage in the negotiations, with cooperation, stakeholder engagement, a gender-sensitive approach and strong monitoring mechanisms.¶
- Stresses that the treaty should cover all transnational corporations and their activities through affiliates, subsidiaries, agents, suppliers, partnerships, joint ventures and beneficial proprietorship.¶
- Highlights the need for parent-company-based extraterritorial regulation and clear obligations to eradicate child labour and forced labour from supply chains.¶
- Lists required elements: free, prior and informed consent, consultation, the right to say no, reversal of the burden of proof, extraterritorial jurisdiction, a ban on rejecting jurisdiction, enforcement of foreign judgments, the right to information and full reparation.¶
- Believes the treaty would strengthen the EU corporate sustainability due diligence directive and calls for a more comprehensive and inclusive approach in that proposal.¶
- Stresses the role of human rights defenders and trade union activists and the need to include protection from intimidation and reprisals in the treaty, and recalls that due diligence should not automatically exempt transnational corporations from liability.¶¶¶
Who is affected
- Transnational corporations and their global value chains, which would face binding human rights, labour and environmental obligations.¶¶
- Victims of corporate human rights abuses, especially poor and vulnerable people in developing countries, who would gain access to remedy and justice.¶¶¶
- Micro, small and medium enterprises, which would receive safeguards and exemptions in the negotiations.¶
- Human rights defenders, trade union activists and civil society organisations, whose protection and participation the treaty should ensure.¶¶
- EU member states, which should otherwise engage in the process individually if the EU does not.
Figures and deadlines
- 113 countries deprive workers of the right to establish or join a trade union, up from 106 in 2021.¶
- 87 % of countries violated the right to strike.
- Four in five countries blocked collective bargaining.
- MSMEs account for 90 % of businesses, 60 to 70 % of employment and 50 % of gross domestic product worldwide.¶
Legal basis: Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union and Article 208 of the Lisbon Treaty.¶