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For human rights regulation of the global economy

Position paper of the Treaty Alliance Germany. Since June 2014, a working group of the UN Human Rights Council has been working on a binding UN agreement with which the international community should regulate the activities of companies with a view to respecting human rights. The UN-Treaty aims to improve the protection of affected individuals and communities against human rights abuses by companies and to give them access to legal remedies. From 23 to 27 October 2017, the Working Group on the Agreement will meet in Geneva for the third time. The Ecuadorian leadership will present a proposal for elements of the future agreement by then. In a broad alliance of German non-governmental organisations, the Treaty Alliance Germany, the Global Policy Forum has prepared a position paper on the UN Treaty Process. In it, it calls on the Federal Government to cooperate constructively in the process and presents elements that should be included in a future agreement.
The signatory organisations expect the Federal Government to actively engage in the negotiations for an agreement that:

  • obliges States to legally oblige companies established with them to respect human rights, including in their foreign operations, subsidiaries and supply chains;
  • grants effective legal protection to persons concerned, including in the country of origin of an undertaking;
  • regulates how states cooperate in cross-border cases to hold companies accountable;
  • stipulates that the obligations under the UN Human Rights Agreement take precedence over those under trade and investment protection agreements;
  • provide for an independent expert committee to receive state reports on the state of implementation of the agreement and to examine individual complaints against states;
  • initiates a process to establish an international Court of Human Rights before which individuals can sue transnational corporations for human rights violations.

Scope: 20 pages
Reference: free of charge for download