Latest on Corporate Influence and Accountability (GPF) - Archive

19 May, 2023

Geneva, Switzerland

At an online event held yesterday ahead of World Health Assembly’s 76th session, civil society experts raised concerns about the influence of private and philanthropic foundations during the COVID19 pandemic and the ongoing pandemic treaty negotiations at WHO and overall policy development on various human rights.

Experts highlighted that there is hardly any oversight and it can be often difficult to estimate scale of the influence of these unaccountable private foundations, including the likes [...]

Brussels, 6 March, 2023

Subject: Ensuring a gender-responsive Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence legislation

Dear President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen,

Dear Vice-President Vera Jourová,

Dear Commissioner Thierry Breton,

Dear Commissioner Helena Dalli,

Dear Commissioner Didier Reynders,

Dear Members of Parliament,

Dear Council of the European Union Representatives,

In the lead up to International Women’s Day we want to remind you that corporate accountability is a women’s rights issue, and EU legislation, including the Corporate [...]

The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) offers a unique opportunity to prevent human rights violations and environmental damage in value chains of European companies and to finally give those affected a real chance to claim compensation. In February 2022, the EU Commission presented a proposal for a corresponding directive. It goes beyond the German Supply Chain Act in several respects. However, it also contains numerous loopholes, largely as a result of pressure from business lobby groups. In [...]

Since 2014, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Coun­cil in Geneva has been negotiating an internationally binding agreement on business and human rights – also known as the UN Treaty. From October 24–28, 2022, the intergovernmental working group on a legally binding in­strument on transnational corporations and other busi­ness enterprises with respect to human rights (OEIGWG) met for the eighth time. The countries of the global South as well as the major industrialized nations were present at the meeting. New [...]

Not if, but when - Commentary on the 8th round of negotiations on the UN treaty on business and human rights

Since 2014, an intergovernmental working group at the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva has been negotiating an international binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises - also known as the UN Treaty. The eighth of the responsible intergovernmental working group took place from October 24 [...]

Thank you Mr. Chair!

I am speaking on behalf of Brot für die Welt, FIAN Germany, MISEREOR, Women Engage for a Common Future and Global Policy Forum and as coordinator of the Treaty Alliance Germany, an alliance of twenty-eight civil society organizations in Germany.

Today we celebrate UN Day and the Charter and the Declaration of Human Rights – giving special impetus for this week of negotiations.

For us, this process towards a legally binding instrument is complementary to [...]

SIDE EVENT TO THE 8^th SESSION ON THE UN TREATY ON BUSINESS & HUMAN RIGHTS

Trade Union Rights in the Treaty and the Role of Trade Unions for its Effective Implementation

In many countries, trade unionists face repressions and are unlawfully prevented from representing workers' interests: Freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining as well as the right to strike are in many cases denied to workers and trade unionists all over the world.  According to the ITUC [...]

On 11 March 2022 at United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York City, Secretary-General António Guterres addressed an audience of Member States, UN staff and other stakeholders at the final consultation meeting on his proposed Our Common Agenda. He urged Member States: “The process surrounding Our Common Agenda is an opportunity to recommit to our fundamental enduring principles while overhauling the practices of multilateralism for a new age.” The report details this new multilateralism to be “an inclusive, networked [...]

Brussels, 31st of March, 2022.

Subject: Ensuring a gender-responsive and effective Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence legislation

Dear President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen,

Dear Vice-President Vera Jourová,

Dear Commissioner Thierry Breton,

Dear Commissioner Helena Dalli,

Dear Commissioner Didier Reynders,

Dear Members of Parliament,

Dear Council of the European Union Representatives,

On March 8th, we celebrated International Women’s Day and paid tribute to the women who defend human rights and the environment across the world [...]

From October 25-29, 2021, the UN open-ended intergovernmental working group on the elaboration of a legally binding instrument on Business and Human Rights met for the seventh time at the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva. Two developments provided a new dynamic compared to previous sessions. For the first time since the intergovernmental working group’s establishment in 2014, the United States and Japan participated in its meeting. Germany expressed its views for the first time. In addition, the [...]

Brussels, November 29, 2021

Subject: Urgent request to ensure a gender-responsive and effective legislation on human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) and corporate accountability 

Dear President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, 

Dear Vice-President Vera Jourová, 

Dear Commissioner Thierry  Breton, 

Dear Commissioner Helena Dalli, 

Dear Commissioner Didier Reynders, 

Dear Members of Parliament, 

Dear Council of the European Union Representatives,

November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) Day, is a day to pay tribute [...]

In 2014, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UN) mandated an intergovernmental working group to draft an international treaty for the protection of human rights in the global economy. Since then, the intergovernmental working group, which consists of governments, representatives of civil societies and business, has been meeting annually to negotiate the current status of the draft. The third revised draft constitutes the basis for negotiations during the seventh meeting of the working group from October 25 to [...]

A variety of approaches exists so far that attempt to ensure multinational enterprises’ compliance with human rights in all their business relationships. Workers’ representatives and their trade unions have agreed on more than 300 Global Framework Agreements with transnational corporations to strengthen workers' rights along global supply chains. Also, other corporate approaches such as CSR, social auditing and sector-specific approaches at national level have contributed to improved working conditions in particular in countries where there is only weak employee representation [...]

Time to overcome contradictions and hypocrisy in the COVID-19 crisis

Policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis have greatly exacerbated national and global inequalities. Blatant examples are the unfair distribution of care work, relying mainly on women and poorly remunerated if at all, and the global disparity in the distribution of vaccines.

So far more than 60 percent of people in high-income countries have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but less than 2 percent [...]

Arab NGO Network for Development and Global Policy Forum - Session

IFIs have been promoting the role of the private sector in job creation and sustainable development, through limiting the role of the public sector, incentivizing PPPs and promoting the creation of an enabling environment for businesses and investments. Meanwhile, civil Society has been advocating for holding the private sector, as a development actor, accountable for human rights. Additionally, the current health crisis revealed more challenges related to the role [...]

A gendered approach to the upcoming EU corporate accountability law will help protect women's rights in global supply chains of European companies. Here’s how.

When the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, ceremoniously launched the Gender Equality Strategy: Striving for a Union of Equality last March, she declared that “gender equality is a core principle of the European Union, but it is not yet a reality.”

This much-anticipated strategy planned to integrate a gender perspective in all [...]

From October 26 to 30, 2020, the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (OEIGWG) met for the sixth time at the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council in Geneva. The discussions were based on the second revised draft presented by the Ecuadorian Chair of the working group in August 2020. The session was overshadowed by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was held in a hybrid format, i.e. with [...]

Lessons from the global COVID-19 crisis

This is the fifth edition of the report Spotlight on Sustainable Development. Since 2016, we have published this report annually to assess not only the implementation of the 2030 Agenda but also the structural obstacles in its realization.

When we started to plan for this year’s report in Autumn 2019, mass protests were shaking a growing number of countries in various regions of the world. In Ecuador, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, in Egypt, Lebanon [...]

The world has become a patient. The new corona virus is a global medical riddle that governments, pharmaceutical companies and international organizations are trying to decipher in a unity rarely seen before. The level of cross-border exchange of data, research methods and evidence underlines the crucial role played by transnational communities of scientists* and experts*. With the development and the clinical testing of a vaccine, many hope that the virus will be all but contained, the rest a matter of [...]

Berlin, September 2020

In June 2014, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UNHRC) mandated an intergovernmental working group (Resolution 26/9) to develop an interna-tional instrument to regulate the activities of transnational and other corporations. The aim of the process is to close the legal gaps in the protection of human rights in the global economy that have emerged in the course of globali-zation. So far, in five rounds of negotiations, governments, legal experts and representatives of civil society [...]

Berlin, September 2020

In June 2014, the Human Rights Council of the United Nations (UNHRC) mandated an intergovernmental working group (Resolution 26/9) to develop an interna-tional instrument to regulate the activities of transnational and other corporations. The aim of the process is to close the legal gaps in the protection of human rights in the global economy that have emerged in the course of globali-zation. So far, in five rounds of negotiations, governments, legal experts and representatives of civil society [...]

22 JULY| ROSA LUXEMBURGSTIFTUNG ET AL.

An international study published by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Biba, Bread for the World, FIAN Germany, Forum on Environment and Development, INKOTA-netzwerk, IRPAD, PELUM Zambia, Tabio, and TOAM documents the dramatic negative impacts of the Alliance for a Green Revolution (AGRA) on small-scale food producers in the 13 African countries the initiative focuses on.

More information and download here

Related publication:

Corporate influence through the G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa [...]

Position paper published by ASW –Aktionsgemeinschaft Solidarische Welt, Brot für die Welt, CorA-Netzwerk für Unternehmensverantwortung, FEMNET, FIAN Deutschland, Global Policy Forum, Marie-Schlei-Verein, materra, Plan International Deutschland, TERRE DES FEMMES, TransFair, WECF.

On 24 April, the World Health Organization announced a multi-stakeholder initiative called the “Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, or the ACT Accelerator”. The ACT Accelerator describes itself as “a collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable global access to new COVID-19 essential health technologies”. It is “grounded in a vision of a planet protected from human suffering and the devastating social and economic consequences of COVID-19”.

The multi-stakeholder initiative was launched in Geneva by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus [...]

A joint letter from the World Health Organization and private business to the G-20 leaders on the response to COVID 19 and its economic fallout raises concerns.
The letter dated 23 March signed by the WHO Director-General, the Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Saudi Arabia chair of Business 20 (B20), a private sector grouping of G-20 was addressed to the G20 Heads of State and Government prior to their virtual summit on the. The letter states [...]