UN treaty on transnational corporations must put people over profit
Negotiations towards a strong treaty on transnational corporations (TNCs) and other businesses to effectively protect people and mother earth have been underway for a decade. On Human Rights Day and ahead of the tenth round of talks in Geneva next week FIAN International calls on states to make progress on holding powerful interests to account on human rights and the environment.
Despite long-standing demands from affected communities, social movements and civil-society organizations, no binding global legal framework exists to hold big-agro, big-food, big-tech and big-financial corporations accountable for human rights abuses around the world. This lack of global regulation allows TNCs to escape accountability by finding legal loopholes, subcontracting their obligations to entities in their value chain, or using their economic groups or holding structures in different jurisdictions.
Transnational corporations, which dominate global value chains concentrate power in today’s globalized economies, frequently using their position to harm human rights and the environment in the pursuit of profit – as FIAN has witnessed in recent cases in Senegal and the Balkans, to name just two. Most of these abuses and violations have no legal consequences nor remedies for those affected.
“The existing asymmetries between trade and investment law give rights to corporations, and weak voluntary human rights standards only suggest how corporations should respect human rights, especially from a national perspective and without clear liability regimes,” says FIAN International’s permanent representative to the UN, Ana María Suárez Franco.
“This allow corporations to exploit numerous loopholes in a globalized world where global value chains are controlled by a few powerful economic actors.”.
Vibrant civil society participation despite setbacks
In 2024, the intergovernmental working groups negotiating the UN TNC treaty adopted a technical decision to provide more resources that will intensify the negotiations. Nonetheless, during the last year most of the consultations were held on methodologies rather than substance. Moreover, abruptly in September, the dates of the negotiations were postponed from late October to the week before Christmas, a decision which impacts the ability of many participants to attend – notably civil-society organizations, social movements and representatives from affected communities
Despite this, FIAN International and many of our civil society partners from around the world will attend negotiations from 16 to 20 December.
Beyond negotiating the text of the treaty, the 10th session will aim to define the road map of intersessional negotiations to be held in 2025 and the role of legal experts announced earlier this year. Civil society, social movements, Indigenous Peoples part of the Treaty Alliance, the Global Campaign to Reclaim Peoples Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity (Global Campaign), the Feminists for the Binding Treaty, the ESCR-Net and the Young Friends of the Treaty will attend the negotiations and continue advocating for states to actively participate in the negotiations.
The collective aim is to strengthen the currently weakened draft text and ensure robust prevention mechanisms that go beyond mere due diligence and strong gender-responsive provisions. We are also seeking extraterritorial liability regimes that put the burden of proof on perpetrators and include joint liability along the value chains, as well as effectively ensuring people's access to remedy where controlling companies are based and where they operate.
Transnational, intergenerational justice, gender and intersectionality
Concerned with the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and destruction of biodiversity, many environmental organizations are demanding a strong environmental component in the TNC treaty, incorporating the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
“A treaty that does not protect the environment nor make those responsible for environmental harm liable, will not be effective enough to protect humanity from corporate greed and ensure the remediation of losses and damages, including regarding their intergenerational impact,” says Stephan Backes, secretary of the Consortium on Extraterritorial Obligations (ETO Consortium) and corporate accountability officer at FIAN.
“Transition, including towards more just, healthy and sustainable food systems, cannot be fair without robust corporate accountability beyond borders and generations”.
The differential impact of corporate harm on women and LGTBQ+ people has been strongly argued by the Feminists for the Binding Treaty. Access to remedy, protection of rightsholders, prevention and liability must be negotiated including gender-sensitive regulations that allow people with diverse gender identities and women to access justice and remedy and to adequately participate in their definition.
During the week of negotiations, FIAN will stay vigilant urging states to take prompt effective action and continue advocating for human dignity and nature at the UN. We urge all member States to respond to the demands of human rights and environmental defenders and actively negotiate a treaty that is effective to stop corporate injustice to ensure a more just world for all – today and in the future.
For more information or media interviews please contact Amanda Cordova (cordova-gonzales@fian.org)
