Register Now: European Consultation on the Revised Draft of the Proposed Business and Human Rights Treaty Online 1 July 2020

I am delighted to pass along information about a European Consultation on the Revised Draft of the Proposed Business and Human Rights Treaty. The consultation is guided by a remarkable group of academics and civil society actors deeply committed to issues of managing the human rights effects of economic activity:

• Robert McCorquodale, Inclusive Law
• Jernej Letnar Černič, Graduate School of Government and European Studies
• Antoine Duval, Asser Institute
• Maysa Zorob, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
• Daniel Aguirre, Roehampton University
• Shane Darcy, National University of Ireland
• Claire Bright, Nova University
• Mariëtte van Huijstee, SOMO
• Maddalena Neglia, FIDH
• Markus Krajewski, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
• Tara Van Ho, University of Essex
• Nadia Bernaz, Wageningen University

The consultation is scheduled for 12.30 - 16.00 hours BST. The Consultation is free to attend, however, advance registration is required. This event is available for booking but you must be logged in before you can place a booking. Book now.

Join in the conversation @BIICL #bizhumanrights

This is an important event on an equally important, if from my perspective, flawed approach. Flawed or not, the issue of the mechanisms for the management of economic activity on the basis of a moral-political model is of substantial importance.  It is a necessary element of the development of robust structures of globalization, and of the development of a form of  solidarity among economic actors across borders and other communal divisions.  The form of that moral-political structure (law, markets based, or data driven ratings analytics), its location (within or beyond states), its manifestation (state or non state based remedial structures), along with its underlying fidelity to mandatory models of business conduct (compliance based, risk averse prevention, mitigation, remedial regimes VERSUS risk enhancing tort based harm compensating models), and the allocation of the power to protect rights (in rights holders, in the state, or in the hands of civil society "defenders") all remain vitally important and vigorously contested. 

This treaty draft takes one approach.  And it does so in a single minded but coherent way.  Some have contested both that approach and its manifestation in the current text of the draft. The Coalition for Peace & Ethics has circulated its own analysis of both the normative basis of this Draft Treaty and its text.  See Commentary on the U.N. Inter-Governmental Working Group (Geneva) 2019 Draft “Legally Binding Instrument to Regulate, in International Human Rights Law, The Activities of Corporations and Other Business Enterprises” (Textual and Conceptual Analysis) Emancipating the Mind in the New Era: Bulletin of the Coalition for Peace & Ethics 14(2):149-351 (2019).

But now is time to hear the quite remarkable voices of its proponents as they seek to develop and refine a coherent line to take this draft, in its current form (normative and textual) to the next level of development.  Anyone who is interested in the subject and able to attend ought to seriously consider participating.

Consultation details follow. Consultation webpage HERE.

Event Details

 In June 2014, the UN Human Rights Council established an open-ended 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.' In the report of the working group's 5th session , the Chair-Rapporteur recommended 'regional and political groups, intergovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations and all other relevant stakeholders, as appropriate, to organize consultations at all levels, including in particular at the regional and national level, with a view to exchanging comments and inputs on the revised draft legally binding instrument'.

In line with the working group's recommendation, this Europe virtual consultation is open to all academics, legal practitioners and civil society organization interested in discussing how to improve the revised draft of the proposed legally binding instrument.

Based on input received during the consultation, a summary of recommendations will be submitted to the working group's Chair-Rapporteur to inform the second revised draft likely to be released in July 2020.

Part I                     1st July 2020 12.30 - 14.00

• Preamble
• Article 1. Definitions
• Article 2. Statement of purpose
• Article 3. Scope
• Article 4. Rights of Victims
• Article 5. Prevention

 
Part II                   1st July 2020 14.30 - 16.00

• Article 6. Legal Liability
• Article 7. Adjudicative Jurisdiction
• Article 8. Statute of limitations
• Article 9. Applicable law
• Article 10. Mutual Legal Assistance
• Article 11. International Cooperation
• Article 12. Consistency with International Law