The European Coalition for Corporate Justice, along with
- The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable and Human Rights Watch have written an open letter to the Ecuadorian Mission to Geneva, calling for stronger remedy provisions for victims of corporate abuse.
Since 2015 the Ecuadorian Government has been leading on proposals to develop a treaty on business and human rights, which would create a binding and robust framework that holds companies responsible for abuses committed under their watch.
On 26 June 2014, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution by which it decided to set up “Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights”. In the lead up to the Third Session of the Working Group at the end of October, the Chairperson has published elements for a draft legally binding instrument.
A number of recommendations are made in the letter to the Ecuadorian Government including:
- The coordination of a transparent treaty process which engages disempowered groups at risk of having their rights violated;
- Enhanced accountability standards, alongside “enforcement, and access to remedy for corporate-related human rights abuses”
You can read the open letter here