Radio Mundo Real

Senior Lawyer Apollin Koagne, of the Center for the Environment and Development – Friends of the Earth Cameroon, stated on Wednesday in Geneva that voluntary mechanisms to stop corporate abuses against human rights have not been successful.

Koagne argued that instruments such as the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, due to their voluntary nature, have allowed companies to systematically choose to defend their own commercial interests over the rights of the communities in their territories.

The lawyer of Friends of the Earth Cameroon said that in his daily work in defense of communities he has met with the inefficacy of voluntary principles to protect human rights. Therefore, he considers a binding treaty is crucial to regulate the violations perpetrated by transnational corporations and to recognize their “extraterritorial obligations”: these companies should respond for their crimes in their countries of origin, but also in the other countries where they operate.