Mandate
At its 26th session, on 26 June 2014, the Human Rights Council adopted
resolution 26/9 by which it decided “to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, whose mandate shall be to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.”
The open-ended intergovernmental working group (OEIGWG) has had five sessions so far. Ahead of the
fifth session, the Permanent Mission of Ecuador, on behalf of the Chairmanship of the OEIGWG, released
a revised draft legally binding instrument on business activities and human rights. The revised draft served as the basis for direct substantive intergovernmental negotiations during the
fifth session of the OEIGWG, which was held from
14 to 18 October 2019, in Geneva.
The report of the fifth session is available here.
Please note the information about upcoming intersessional consultations :
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presents its compliments to all Permanent and Observers Missions to the United Nations Office in Geneva, specialized agencies, other intergovernmental organizations, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations and has the honour to inform of the following:
- At the final meeting of its fifth session, the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (OEIGWG) took note with appreciation of the recommendations of the Chair-Rapporteur and looked forward to the second revised draft legally binding instrument, the informal consultations, and the updated programme of work for its sixth session, which will be held from 26 to 30 October 2020, as a follow up to the implementation of the mandate of HRC resolution 26/9.
- In that regard and in line with the Chair-Rapporteur's recommendations 101. (i) as contained in the report on the 5th session of the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (A/HRC/43/55), the Chair-Rapporteur will hold a series of open informal consultations with Governments, regional groups, intergovernmental organizations, United Nations mechanisms, civil society and other relevant stakeholders, as one of the basis for the preparation of the second revised draft legally binding instrument. While three consultations had been originally planned to take place between 9th April and 29th May, the first one had to be cancelled in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and UNOG announcement that it could no longer host any meetings at least until 19 April 2020. The remaining two planned consultations will take place in accordance with the following details:
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First open informal consultation: Wednesday, 29 April 2020, 15:00-17:00, Palais des Nations, (Room V);
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Second open informal consultation: Friday, 29 May 2020, 10:00-12:00, Palais des Nations, (Room Ariana 2);
- The dates and rooms mentioned above, as well as a possible new third open informal consultation at a date and location to be determined, may be subject to possible changes resulting from the measures adopted by UNOG, in compliance with the decisions by the Federal and cantonal authorities, in response to COVID-19.
- This series of consultations will be a complement to the discussions held during the fifth session of the OEIGWG; the two annexes of the report of the fifth session containing respectively a compilation of written statements and a compilation of the concrete textual suggestions presented by States during the fifth session; the additional textual suggestions on the draft legally binding instrument received until the end of February 2020, in accordance with the Chair-Rapporteur's recommendation 101 (a)–(c); and the ongoing bilateral consultations and other related activities undertaken by the Chairmanship in preparation of the sixth session of the OEIGWG.
- The two annexes mentioned above, can been found on the website of the OEIGWG at:
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/WGTransCorp/Session5/Pages/Session5.aspx.
- The participation of other relevant stakeholders in the series of consultations mentioned above will follow the procedure of the previous sessions of the OEIGWG, without prejudice to any additional information to be posted on the website of the Working Group.
- For further enquiries, please send a message to
igwg-tncs@ohchr.org.
