Rights for People and Rules for Corporations: a UN treaty to stop corporate abuse

From 23-27 October 2023, state representatives from across the globe met in Geneva for the 9th session of the United Nations Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights. Since inception, this forum has been a space where countries meet to have negotiations that will advance corporate accountability, particularly in bringing an end to prevalent corporate abuse and protecting human rights.    

As part of the Feminists for a Binding Treaty (F4BT) coalition, I attended this year’s session on behalf of Womankind Worldwide and our partners.  

What’s a Binding Treaty? 

In this year’s session, participants continued their efforts to advance an international legally binding treaty on business and human rights. Such a treaty aims to both stop corporations from harming people and the environment and to lessen the impacts when they do.  

During the session, civil society organisations detailed the harms experienced by various communities such as indigenous people in the US who have been displaced from their lands and made sick by uranium mining. Similar experiences were repeated throughout the forum of communities damaged by corporations’ actions, and profits prized over the environment and human rights. 

Corporate abuse has a bigger impact on women and girls. We’ve seen how corporate practices exacerbate environmental injustice, disproportionately exposing them to displacement and gender-based violence and reversing decades of progress in gender equality. For example, in Uganda, women provide the majority of labour on the land but rarely hold title deeds. The oppressive legacy of the multi-billion mining and extractives industry has seen thousands of women lose their homes, income and livelihoods to land grabbing. Diverse and vulnerable groups such as women with disabilities experience additional structural barriers such as inability to access physical spaces preventing them from exercising their rights and increased challenges in finding alternative livelihoods and housing.

”An established binding treaty that goes beyond paper to action could go a long way in putting a stop to these activities, making corporations accountable through sanctions and payment of reparations to communities harmed. ”

What do we call for? 

The F4BT coalition not only calls for the treaty to be ratified but advocates for it to be gender responsive in how it pursues corporate accountability. This would meet the needs of millions of diverse women and girls and people of other marginalised genders who continue to face exploitation. Some of the other calls include:   

• Substantive equality for women in all their diversity (meaning systematic discrimination should be prevented and equal opportunities provided for all). 

• Intersectionality—taking into account the multiple and intersecting identities and associated discriminations women from different groups face. 

• Meaningful participation for those affected and diverse perspectives. 

• An emphasis on human rights and stopping discrimination. 

F4BT maintained a strong stance during members’ interventions in the session, and engagements with various state representatives across the week. As a UK-based organisation, part of Womankind Worldwide’s work is also to monitor and try to engage the UK delegation, who this year highlighted the importance of gender equality and the rights of women with disabilities within the main document. However, the UK also supported flexibility for businesses and states in how they implement the treaty, something which could weaken accountability. Despite this, it was a positive step to see the UK engaging in the process, as they hadn’t participated in negotiations last year. Along with other UK civil society organisations, we hope to engage with the UK on our feminist messaging before the next session. 

Slow-paced actions during the forum 

Frustratingly, things did not progress quickly this year. While the Chair tried to streamline previous recommendations, this unfortunately left out priorities from Global South states and key language supported by civil society aimed at driving forward a gender-responsive and human-rights focused treaty.  

As the process continues, Womankind Worldwide calls for a sense of urgency in preventing future human rights violations and environmental degradation. We remain committed to pushing for a ratified binding treaty that will enable access to justice, restore dignity to communities, and hold corporations accountable for their actions.  

Want to get involved and add a feminist voice? 

If you’re part of an organisation that’s   interested in attending next year’s session, consider including this in your advocacy plans and any relevant funding bids.   

Also, feminist organisations working on business and human rights are welcome to get in touch if you’d like to get involved with:  

• Engaging with States at regional forums in five of Womankind’s focus countries (Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nepal). 

• Engaging with the UK delegation: Together with other UK-based organisations, we’ll contribute our feminist recommendations as the UK develops its responses. 

• Collaborating with F4BT: We’ll issue statements on the process (including the Chair’s proposals to speed things up) and put forward our collective messaging to different States.  

”When women in all our diversity work together, we can achieve great things. We hope you’ll join the call: Rights for People, Rules for Corporations!”

Alex Webber is a Policy and Advocacy Manager at Womankind Worldwide