Public Control on Transnational Corporations & Extraterritorial Obligations: experiences of legal reforms at the national level
Workshop
Wednesday July 8th 2015
3pm-4:30pm
Place des Nations – Permanent Tent (#OccupyUNsquare), Geneva
While the first meeting of the intergovernmental group at the UN on the elaboration of an international treaty on business and human rights is being held, the push for the enactment of binding norms to end transnational corporations’ (TNCs) impunity could be strengthened by recent steps forward at the national level. In France, Switzerland and Catalonia, legal reforms, aiming at incurring the legal liability of parent companies and contractors in case of human rights and environmental abuses resulting from their activities or those of their subsidiaries, subcontractors and providers in the entire world are under way, such as a law on external action adopted in Catalonia in December 2014, a law on multinationals’ duty of care adopted in first reading by the French National Assembly in March 2015 and a popular initiative for responsible business launched in in April 2015 in Switzerland.
These three initiatives would not have existed without the long-term mobilization of large civil society coalitions in these countries, who are facing the fierce opposition from big companies and their lobby groups.
At the same time, a proposal to work on Extraterritorial Obligations (ETOs) related to the human rights obligations of states towards persons outside their territories has been raised since 2007 by a network of some 80 human rights related CSOs and academics. These obligations have so far been underused, even though they are crucial for addressing the challenges of globalization.
The main goal of the Workshop will be to debate on different proposals of Public Control on TNCs as well as on ETOs.
Speakers :
- Juliette Renaud, Friends of the Earth France, member of the Forum Citoyen pour la RSE (France)
- Béatrix Niser, Responsible Business Initiative (Switzerland)
- Mónica Vargas Collazos / Aida Guillén, Catalan Working Group on TNCs and Human Rights (Catalonia)
- Rolf Künnemann, FIAN / Brid Brennan, TNI (tbc)
Organizers: Forum Citoyen pour la RSE (France), Catalan Working Group on TNCs and Human Rights, Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity, Responsible Business Initiative (Switzerland)
