PRESS RELEASE
Conclusions of the Global Campaign on the UNHRC 2nd Session of the “Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights” (OEIGWG) concluding on 28th October 2016
Geneva, 28 October 2016
In the context of the Second Session of the Open Ended Inter-Governmental Working Group (OEIGWG) at the Human Rights Council with the mandate to establish a Binding Treaty on Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, the Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples’ Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and End Impunity expressed its engagement with this process through several activities, actions and statements. The Campaign is committed to the importance of this process as a way to allow people affected by Transnational Corporations (TNCs) around the world access to justice.
The current process began in 2014 and succeeded in inserting the urgent need to create a binding tool to compel TNCs’ to respect Human Rights into the UN agenda. Many years of complicity between governments and TNCs, which has led to an increase of cases of repression, convince us more than ever of our demands. The people affected by TNCs are fed up with being victims and demand justice. Therefore, we reaffirm our resistance to the capture of this process by TNCs and we demand states to safeguard the Treaty negotiations from political interference and conflicts of interest.
Throughout one week, more than 100 activists, representing unions, peasant organizations, environmental organisations, youth, women, indigenous peoples, migrants and the access to medicines movements convened in Geneva to participate in and observe the proceedings within the UN. These activists represented 29 countries and shared their lived experiences in 15 activities both within and outside the formal spaces of the UN. Participants made 40 oral statements in the six panels of the session.
The Global Campaign participated actively in the debate. It presented 6 precise proposals for the binding instrument : on the obligations for TNCs, extraterritorial obligations; the instrument of enforcement, the responsibility of TNCs in the global supply chains; the architecture of the global corporate law (International Financial Institutions, the World Trade Organisation and the investment and trade regime); as well as the rights of the affected communities.
We are aware that during this process we will face important challenges. But we are committed to maintaining a high level of mobilization at both local and international levels. By doing so, we expect to have a concrete and positive Treaty proposal as the result of the work during the 3rd Session of the IGWG. With this objective, we call all movements and organizations – within and outside the Campaign – to join these efforts. We must pressure any governments opposing this process to change their perspective on the Binding Treaty proposal and recognize the urgent need for a legal instrument that puts people before profits, commercial interests and investment deals. This Saturday, concluding our week of mobilization, we will hold a demonstration in Geneva.
Signatories:
Articulación internacional de las afectadas y afectados por la VALE, Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) – Southern African Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power, Amigos da Terra Brasil, Amigos de la Tierra América Latina y el Caribe – ATALC,, Amigos de la Tierra España, Amis de la Terre France, ATM/Mining, Attac – España, Attac – Maroc, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) – Friends of the Earth Bangladesh, BDS, CCFD, CED – Friends of the Earth Camerun, CEDIB – Bolivia, Center on Governance and Sustainability, CESTA – Friends of the Earth El Salvador, CETIM, Comunidad de Barillas – Guatemala and CEIBA – Friends of the Earth Guatemala, Confederación Sindical de Trabajadores y Trabajadoras de las Américas (CSA), Corporate Accountability International (CAI), Ecologistas en Acción, ENTREPUEBLOS, ERA – Friends of the Earth Nigeria, FASE, FIAN International, France Amérique Latine (FAL), Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), Global Forest Coalition, Grup de Treball sobre Empreses i Drets Humans (Catalunya), GTPI – Vigencia, HOMA, Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ) – Sawit Watch – People’s Coalition for the Rights to Water (KruHA-Indonesia), Indonesian Human Rights Committee for Social Justice (IHCS) – WALHI – Solidaritas Perempuan – INDIES Indonesia – Indonesia Focal Point for Legally Binding Treaty Initiative -,Institute for Policy Studies, Global Economy Project, JA! – Friends of the Earth Mozambique, Justiça Global, La Via Campesina (LVC), LAB Euskal Herria, LAFEDE.CAT, Legal Resources Center (LRC), MAB – LVC, NOVACT, Observatorio de Multinacionales en América Latina (OMAL), PACS, PENGON Palestine, “Popular Council for the Protection of the Jordan Valley – FOEI”, PSI, Radio Mundo Real, REDES – Amigos de la Tierra Uruguay, “Red Sombra de Observadores de Glencore”, SENTRO/TU, SUDS, Taula Catalana per la Pau i els Drets Humans a Colòmbia, Tierra Digna, Transnational Migrant Platform Europe, Transform!europe, Transnational Institute (TNI), VIGENCIA, Unión de Afectados/as por las Operaciones Petroleras de Texaco (UDAPT), HOMA, WALHI – Friends of the Earth Indonesia, War on Want, WOMIN, World March of Women.
Press Contact:
Raffaele Morgantini, +41796606514, contact@cetim.ch
Mónica Vargas, +34662026497, m.vargas@tni.org
More information on the Week of Mobilisation
The Global Campaign is a network of over 200 social movements, networks, organisations and affected communities resisting land grabs, extractive mining, exploitative wages and environmental destruction by transnational corporations (TNCs) in different global regions, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is a peoples´ global structural response to unaccountable corporate power which provides facilitation for dialogue, strategizing, exchanging information and experiences, acting as a space for visibility of resistance and deepening of solidarity and support for struggles against TNCs. The Global Campaign has been actively involved since the beginning of the process and has facilitated the gathering of more than 100 delegates from 29 countries during the Week of 24th to 28th October 2016 in Geneva.
