During the week of October 24, USCIB Senior Counsel Ronnie Goldberg was in Geneva to attend the 8th session of the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group that is negotiating a UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights. According to Goldberg, USCIB and the International Organization of Employers (IOE) have long raised serious concerns about both the content of the proposed treaty and the process by which it is being negotiated.
“A limited number of countries have engaged in this negotiation to date, and last month’s session saw no significant increase,” said Goldberg. “Many countries have expressed their disappointment and frustration with the approach of the Working Group, which represents a major departure from the international consensus achieved through the development of the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights (UNGP). USCIB remains concerned that comments and suggestions from the U.S. and EU, as well as from private sector representatives, are being ignored.” There appears to be a lack of effort to develop a genuine consensus, added Goldberg.
Intersessional meetings will be convened before the next round of negotiations in 2023, but the terms and mandate for these meetings remain unclear. What is clear is that this process promises to grind on for years to come.
Meanwhile, the current iteration of the draft treaty remains inconsistent with the purpose and principles of the UNGP in many respects. While the UNGP emphasizes that the corporate responsibility to respect human rights requires business enterprises to seek, prevent, mitigate and remediate adverse human rights impacts, including through due diligence, the draft treaty imposes a mandatory and complex due diligence process for business entities, requires that business entities either prevent human rights violations from happening or face liability, and makes no mention of other entities indispensable to the protection of human rights, notably governments implementing their own laws and obligations.
“In sum, the text that emerged from the recent negotiation remains unimplementable and largely unratifiable,” asserted Goldberg. “As it stands, it risks harming investment, trade and employment creation, particularly for countries with large informal sectors and deep-rooted challenges related to child and forced labor.” It would also be counterproductive to the efforts of business to safeguard human rights by undermining efforts to strengthen the implementation of the UNGP, raising serious concerns about State sovereignty and creating significant legal uncertainties.
USCIB has thanked the U.S. Government for its support for involving business alongside all societal partners in the Treaty negotiations. “We will continue to engage with the Administration on ways to protect human rights in the context of rule of law and voluntary enabling frameworks for responsible business conduct,” said Goldberg.
USCIB policy experts are now at the 27th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. In advance of COP27, USCIB 
As the United Nations opened its 77th Session of the General Assembly, USCIB was on hand to inform the deliberations. USCIB convened several high-level meetings, which delivered impactful and informative dialogues and practical next steps. Throughout, USCIB highlighted the private sector’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Secretary General’s visionary Our Common Agenda, and to effective and resilient multilateral institutions, led by the UN. Below, we are pleased to share perspectives by USCIB’s leadership—USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson and USCIB Board of Trustees’ Sustainability Champion and Novozymes CEO Ester Baiget—on UNGA77 and the private sector’s role, as well as summaries of USCIB events during UNGA77. Finally, we also include a look-ahead at USCIB’s ambitious plan for UN engagement and advocacy for 2023 and beyond by USCIB SVP Norine Kennedy.
USCIB has 
USCIB filed public comments with the United States Trade Representative (USTR) August 5 in response to a request for input on a U.S. trade strategy to combat forced labor. According to the submission, a successful U.S. forced labor trade policy must assume a whole-of government approach that is multi-faceted, multilateral and risk-based in nature, focused on addressing the root causes of forced labor, including promoting rule of law in nations struggling to adopt and enforce internationally recognized labor standards.
July 30, 2022, New York, NY — The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) joins the global community in recognizing World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, held annually on July 30. We are proud of the work our corporate members do to engage in the fight against trafficking, including initiatives to train employees to spot signs of human trafficking and conducting thorough human rights due diligence to mitigate instances of forced labor in supply chains.
USCIB is pleased to announce our new Co-Chairs of the USCIB Corporate Responsibility and Labor Affairs Committee, IBM Vice President of Global Workforce Policy David Barnes and Bechtel Corporation’s Global Head of Sustainability and General Manager for bechtel.org Tam Nguyen.
The Economist Impact
