Radio Mundo Real

The Ecuadorian Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Council´s working group in charge of negotiating a binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights submitted on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, the report of the third session of the group held last October. The countries ratified the importance of the process and will hold its fourth session in October 2018, with the negotiation of a “draft zero”.

Ecuador now opened a consultation period with participant states until June in order to write this first draft, according to activist Juliette Renaud, of Friends of the Earth France and representative of Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) this week in Geneva.
The report of the open-ended working group that is negotiating the binding treaty on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights violations was submitted today in the framework of the 37th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is taking place from February 26 to March 23.

In an interview with Real World Radio, Renaud highlighted the reaction by the European Union to Ecuador´s third session report. She explained that in the three years of negotiations, the EU has tried to delay and hinder the process, but this Thursday, Bulgaria, on behalf of the bloc, said that the EU “will continue to participate in these negotiations on the binding treaty and so acknowledged the continuation of the process".

At the headquarters of UN´s Human Rights Council in Geneva, the representative of FoEI said that the EU´s attitude is due to the pressure exerted by social movements and organizations. She also said that the environmental federation and its allies of the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and the Treaty Alliance will push the governments for the draft zero to reflect the voice and needs of affected communities and victims in general.