DESCRIPTION
The United Nations initiated a study and the report came out in 2008 entitled "Protect, Respect and Remedy: A Framework for Business and Human Rights". The study proposed a Framework based on three pillars: (a) the obligation of the state to protect, (b) the corporate responsibility to respect, and (c) the access to remedies for victims of human rights violations.TRANSCRIPT
12:00 AM, September 08, 2020 / LAST MODIFIED: 12:47 AM, September 08, 2020
https://www.thedailystar.net/law-our-rights/news/analysing-the-draft-un-treaty-business-and-human-rights-1957689
RIGHTS ADVOCACY
Analysing the Draft UN Treaty on business and human rights
M S Siddiqui
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are active in some of the most dynamic sectors of national
economies with the capacity to assert a positive influence in fostering development. Some of
those enterprises make real efforts to achieve international standards by improving working
conditions and raising local standards of living conditions.
Some MNEs, however, do not respect international human rights standards and can thus be
implicated for abuses such as employing child labourers, discriminating against certain
groups of employees, failing to provide safe and healthy as well as just and favourable
conditions of work.
The international community is trying to enforce more rigorous scrutiny of MNEs' negative
impact on human rights and on the environment. The United Nations initiated a study and the
report came out in 2008 entitled "Protect, Respect and Remedy: A Framework for Business
and Human Rights". The study proposed a Framework based on three pillars: (a) the
obligation of the state to protect, (b) the corporate responsibility to respect, and (c) the access
to remedies for victims of human rights violations.
Based on report, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted Resolution 26/9 (2014) on
the "Elaboration of an international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations
and other business enterprises with respect to human rights". It has elaborated an
international legally binding instrument on transnational corporations and other business
enterprises with respect to human rights.
The Resolution also establishes the Intergovernmental Working Group, and in order to
organise the Working Group, the sessions devoted to constructive deliberations on the
content, scope, nature and form of the future international instruments. The report has been
updated and revised in third and fourth sessions in 2018. More than 200 civil society
members also gave their opinion.
In July 2019, the Working Group released a new revised version of the draft treaty on
business and human rights on the basis of those working sessions and on the basis of the
comments and suggestions presented orally or in writing by states, as well as through
informal consultations with governments, international organisations, civil society and other
interest groups, which took place in June 2019. The revised draft treaty maintains the four
pillars on which the future instrument will base. These are: (a) the prevention of human rights
abuses, (b) the right of victims to access justice and effective remedies, (c) the international
cooperation for the effective implementation of the instrument, and (d) the monitoring
mechanisms.
States and civil society organisations (CSOs) agree that prevention is a fundamental element
of the future instrument to avoid the costs of complex litigation and, above all, to avoid the
suffering of victims particularly women, children, people with disabilities, indigenous
peoples, migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons and the financial guarantees to
deal with possible compensation claims.
The revised draft treaty proposes that subject to their domestic law, states parties shall ensure
that their domestic legislation provides for criminal, civil or administrative liability of legal
persons for the following offences, among others: war crimes, crimes against humanity and
genocide; torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; enforced disappearance;
extrajudicial execution; forced labour; the use of child soldiers; forced eviction; slavery and
slavery-like offences; forced displacement of people; human trafficking, including sexual
exploitation; and sexual and gender-based violence. The revised draft treaty is a crucial step
forward in the process of establishing a legally binding instrument in the field of business and
human rights.
THE WRITER IS A LEGAL ECONOMIST.