Scope of the future treaty on transnational corporations

INTERGOVERNMENTAL WORKING GROUP ON TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS
2nd session
24-28 October 2016

[Extract from the declaration]

During the first session of the Intergovernmental Working Group in July 2015, the position of extending the future treaty to all companies (local and international) was fiercely defended, regardless of the size and structure of these companies. This is a position defended by Mr Ruggie in his Guiding Principles. Mr Ruggie went even further in the oral presentation of his Guiding Principles to the Human Rights Council (June 2011) by asserting that they were also applicable to “street vendors”… Along the same lines, the International Organization of Employers has deplored the fact that “extraterritorial jurisdiction” does not apply to local companies. It has made this point one of the pillars of its strategy to dilute the process begun at the UN. Yet resolution 26/9 of the Human Rights Council, which sets out the mandate, defines “other enterprises” as follows: “all enterprises whose operational activities have a transnational character and do not apply to local enterprises registered under the relevant domestic legislation.”

Read the CETIM’s oral declaration in French