Towards Treaty on Business and Human Rights: Key Areas of Agreement

Abstract

Current legal framework does not properly address the impact that transnational corporations have on human rights. In response to that in 2014 the UN Human Rights Council established an open-ended intergovernmental working group with a mandate to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises. Although this decision was strongly contested and initially there was very little consensus on what such a treaty should entail, much effort has been invested to improve the content of the proposed treaty and gather the necessary support for its adoption. The aim of this article is to analyse the progress made in negotiating the treaty and to find any essential areas of agreement between different stakeholders. To achieve that aim, historical and analytical research methods have been primarily used. The study finds that two crucial areas of agreement exist – on the regulatory targets and regulatory model – that allows for real negotiations to begin. Keywords: consensus, human rights, transnational corporations, treaty on business and human rights