8th Session of the OEIGWG on the Legally Binding Instrument on TNCs and OBEs with respect to Human Rights – Geneva, Monday 24 of October 2022
The Treaty Alliance, The Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples’ Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and End Impunity; The ESCR-Net; the Feminists for the Binding Treaty and the Young Friends of the Treaty (YouFT) thank states present and remember them the urgency to advance in the process towards the adoption of the Legally Binding Instrument.
We express our discomfort with the presentation of two documents for negotiation during the session. While the third revised draft with comments of States is the product of a long process in which both, states and civil society have been giving their contributions, before the beginning of this session there was no clarity on the role the proposals of the chair will play. Furthermore, the big deviation that the document presents from the third revised draft impedes advancing the negotiations and on the contrary can slow down the progress.
In the report of the 7th session, the chair rapporteur committed to update the draft LBI taking into consideration the compilation of the concrete textual proposals submitted by States during the seventh session and the outcomes of the consultations as reported by the friends of the chair. The proposals of the chair were not included in the methodology agreed in the conclusions and recommendations of the 7th session.
Therefore we urge States to focus this negotiation based on the third revised draft commented by states during the 7th session.
Furthermore, we call all States to protect the democratic character of this process and to ensure transparency and adequate information about the steps and methodologies adopted.
We also ask you to remember the relevant role that civil society has played in this process, contributing with substantiated information based on the experience of affected communities and their advocates as well as in the knowledge of our diverse group of legal experts, who represent legal plurality. This knowledge shall help to ensure an effective treaty process.
Finally, we call all states to ensure that our full participation is guaranteed and respected and that the process is protected from corporate capture, which can undermine the effectiveness of a future legally binding instrument.
People and the planet should be the focus of any instrument negotiated in the Human Rights Council and prevail over corporative interests.
