BHR Treaty Process

Background

The open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights was established in 2014 in response to Human Rights Council resolution 26/9 with a mandate to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

OHCHR believes the treaty and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) can be and should be mutually reinforcing and complementary. In both letter and spirit, the UNGPs call for legal developments at the international, regional and national levels that can effectively protect against business related human rights abuses. Likewise, the treaty process represents an opportunity to increase business respect for human rights, paving the way for more principled, responsible and accountable business operations.

The work OHCHR has undertaken through its Accountability and Remedy Project (ARP) and the treaty process have a common goal: increasing access to effective remedy for victims of corporate abuses and ensuring accountability for such abuses. OHCHR has thus made numerous submissions to the intergovernmental working group to draw attention to relevant findings from the Accountability and Remedy Project that may be relevant to certain technical aspects of the negotiations:

• October 2021: OHCHR submission on the Third Revised Draft: focuses on the preamble of the Third Revised Draft legally binding instrument and those articles relating to mandatory human rights due diligence.
• October 2020: OHCHR submission on the Second Revised Draft: focuses on those articles of the Second Revised Draft legally binding instrument that address mandatory human rights due diligence, mutual legal assistance, international cooperation, and protection from retaliation.
• October 2019: OHCHR submission on the Revised Draft: draws attention to ARP findings relevant to articles relating to the rights of victims, prevention, legal liability, and mutual legal assistance.

Official statements from the High Commissioner and Deputy High Commissioner about the treaty process may be found on the business and human rights statements page.