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 draft report of the fifth session is available here.
Please note the following deadlines:
4 November 2019: Please submit any factual corrections or clarifications on the draft report by Monday, 4 November 2019 to igwg-tncs@ohchr.org. These corrections will be incorporated into the final draft of the report to the greatest extent possible keeping in mind the word limit of the report.
30 November 2019: In accordance with the Recommendations of the Chair-Rapporteur (see draft report, para 101), the Secretariat will prepare two compilations:
- A compilation of the concrete textual suggestions on the revised draft legally binding instrument presented during the 5th session of the IGWG.
- A compilation of written statements from States delivered during the 5th session of the IGWG.
Both compilations will include only those concrete textual suggestions or written statements that are sent to the Secretariat in writing by 30 November 2019 at igwg-tncs@ohchr.org. Each compilation will reproduce the suggestions / statements in the language received by the Secretariat.
29 February 2020: The Chair-Rapporteur invites States and other relevant stakeholders to submit their additional textual suggestions on the revised draft legally binding instrument no later than the end of February 2020. These may also be sent to the Secretariat at igwg-tncs@ohchr.org.
Please regularly consult this webpage, as more information will be posted as it becomes available. If you have any questions, please contact igwg-tncs@ohchr.org.
