On October 4, 2016, the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office, the Global Policy Forum, and the International Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) will host a panel discussion on the struggle to establish a binding UN treaty on transnational corporations and human rights.
In recent years, the international debate surrounding the environmental, social, and human rights responsibilities of corporations has gained momentum. Not least, growing public criticism of transnational corporations and banks has contributed to this debate. The list of criticisms is long: ever-new pollution scandals, disregard for the most basic labor and human rights standards, massive bribery allegations, as well as widespread corporate tax avoidance strategies.
Against this background, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s decision, initiated by Ecuador and South Africa, to establish an intergovernmental working group “to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises” deserves to be called historic.
This panel will assess the state of the current debate, discuss the pros and cons and the potential content of a legally binding treaty, as well as explore links to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to the agenda and responsibilities of the incoming Secretary-General.
Speakers include:
Jens Martens/Barbara Adams, Global Policy Forum
H.E. Horacio Sevilla, Permanent Representative of Ecuador to the United Nations (TBC)
Dominic Renfrey, Corporate Accountability and Economic Policy Program Coordinator, ESCR-Net
James Hare, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office
October 4, 2016, 1:00-3:00 pm
Church Center, 2nd Floor
777 UN Plaza
New York City
Please RSVP by September 30, 2016 to gpf@globalpolicy.org
And don’t miss our recent study on the struggle for a UN treaty on human rights and business!
