Side events to the UN intergovernmental working group on TNCs and Human Rights

Week of Action to Stop Corporate Impunity

In parallel with the first session of the UN intergovernmental working group, human rights advocates from across the world will gather in Geneva to denounce corporate abuse and impunity.

The first session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group (IGWG) towards a Treaty on Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and other business enterprises with regards to human rights, will take place from 6-10 July in Geneva, paving the way for stopping corporate impunity. FIAN International, together with other partners from the Treaty Alliance (TA), will be following up discussions and co-organizing side events to give a voice to the demands of wider civil society.

The week of mobilization will bring together representatives from social movements and grassroots organizations -often those most affected by human rights abuses, thereby emphasizing the real consequences of corporate impunity on the ground, as well as the need to have access to an effective remedy. Activities are expected to take place both in an out the UN - Palais des Nations building, and throughout the first IGWG session.

In particular, the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN), FIAN International, Franciscans International, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), CIDSE and Friends of the Earth, will be co-organizing two side events on 6 and 7 July. The events will look into the impact of transnational corporations and other business enterprises on grassroots communities, and the social movements’ perspective on the need of international regulation.

The 910-organization TA has been working together towards a legally binding instrument since 2013, when it first released a series of demands, including the passage of a UN Human Rights Council Resolution to establish an IGWG with a mandate to develop the treaty. Ahead of the first session of the IGWG, the TA issued a second statement with some specifications on how processes, scope and content should be approached.

IBFAN hopes that the human rights-based mobilization further ensures that States actively participate in good-faith and constructively with the development of the treaty, as well as, together with the IGWG, safeguard their integrity from undue influence by actors from or related to the private sector.

For more information about the events on 5 and 6 July, please click here.

Follow the IGWG session and TA activities via #StopCorporateAbuse

For media enquiries, please contact camille.selleger[at]gifa.org

Week of Action to Stop Corporate Impunity In parallel with the first session of the UN intergovernmental working group, human rights advocates from across the world will gather in Geneva to denounce corporate abuse and impunity.

Week of Action to Stop Corporate Impunity

In parallel with the first session of the UN intergovernmental working group, human rights advocates from across the world will gather in Geneva to denounce corporate abuse and impunity.