Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

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Changed15.16. Welcomes the updated draft LBI, published in July 2023, and considers that it offers a solid and promising basis for advancing negotiations, while also recognising the need for improvement;improvement and alignment with the UNGPs, the OECD Guidelines and other current international standards;

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Changed16.17. Believes that the EU should strive for an LBI wouldthat beis compatible with and complementary to the ongoing normative developments at EU level, and thus would contributecontributes to creating a more coherent global legal framework on business and human rights;

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Changed17.18. Supports a broad scope for the LBI, which aims toLBI coverthat allwould businessensure enterprises,that includingresponsibility transnationalapplies businessthroughout activitiesthe andglobal state-ownedvalue enterprises;chains; considers that allowing states parties the flexibility to differentiate, under their domestic legislation, how business enterprisesenterprises, particularly SMEs, discharge the prevention obligations under the LBI, commensurate with their size, sector, ownership, operational context and the severity of impacts on human rights, would provide important leeway for national adaptation and would be consistent with the universal scope of the UNGPs; highlights that in many regions of the world, micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) are often the driving force of local economies; underlines that MSMEs account for 90 % of businesses, 60 to 70 % of employment and 50 % of gross domestic product worldwide; reiterates the importance of ensuring that obligations and requirements in the instrument are commensurate and proportionate to the size, resources and leverage of companies, and calls for the EU to provide safeguards for MSMEs in the negotiations concerning the instrument;

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Added19. Believes that business activities should be understood in line with the UNGPs;

20. Insists that a broad scope of international instruments, including but not limited to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all core international human rights treaties and fundamental International Labour Organization conventions, should be covered under the LBI, in line with the universality and indivisibility of human rights;

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Changed19.21. Regrets the fact that several references to the environment and climate changechange, including with regard to liability, were removed from the scope of the LBI in the latest draft; considers that the EU and the Member States should strive for the environmental and climate impact of business activities to be included within the scope of the LBI;LBI, in line with EU legislation, policies and ambition in this area, and therefore reflect the growing realisation of the impact of business activities in relation to climate change and environmental degradation, which in turn impact on human rights;

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Changed20.22. Stresses that the LBI should provide for an ambitious, comprehensive, responsive and compulsory framework for the prevention of human rights abuses by corporations;corporations, in particular by establishing the obligation for states parties to adopt appropriate and effective legislative, regulatory and other measures to prevent corporate abuse and to ensure the practice of environmental due diligence and respect of human rights by all business enterprises; notes, in this regard, that allowing states parties the flexibility to adapt their preventive frameworks to their own legal systemssystems, while preserving the primacy of human rights, would be a key factor in securing broad adherence to the LBI;

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Changed21.23. Calls for the EU and the Member States to ensure, in line with the provisions under the UNGPs, that the LBI prevention framework obliges corporate actors to payconduct particularenhanced attentiondue todiligence theirwhen activitiesoperating in relation to conflict-affected areas or territories under occupation or annexation, where the risk of gross human rights violations is heightened, such as conflict-affected areas or territories under occupation or annexation, including by adding references to international humanitarian law, international criminal law and customary international law in the scope of the LBI; believes that the LBI should also address aspects related to corporate activities in disaster-affected areas or in relation to climate-vulnerable communities, which are becoming ever more relevant in the context of the climate crisis;

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Changed22.24. Believes that the obligation for companies to adopt a risk-based approach and undertake regular human rights impact assessments prior to and throughout operations, and to take into account the needs of those at heightened risk, constitute particularly important elements for the LBI prevention framework, including by integrating a gender perspective, but also by taking into account issues concerning groups at risk of vulnerability or marginalisation;marginalisation, such as indigenous and traditional communities, minorities and human rights and environmental defenders;

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Changed23.25. Calls for the LBI to provide a central role to affected stakeholders, in particular through the obligation to promote the active and meaningful participation of relevant stakeholders, including trade unions, non-governmental organisations, indigenous peoples and community-based organisations, as well as the private sector, in the implementation of legislation, policies and other measures;measures, with special attention to access to justice and remedies;

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Removed24. Stresses the importance for the EU and the Member States to ensure that the LBI includes the duty to protect the safety of human rights defenders, defenders of the environment, journalists, workers and indigenous peoples and other marginalised groups, and to mainstream consideration for these groups throughout the instrument;

Added26. Calls for the LBI to provide a definition of active and meaningful participation of relevant stakeholders, including through interactive engagement carried out in good faith, on an ongoing basis, with proper follow-through, involving the identification and removal of potential barriers to engagement, and ensuring the safe participation of stakeholders without fear of reprisal;

Removed25. Emphasises the need to ensure that states implement robust and effective, yet practical enforcement and compliance monitoring mechanisms; insists, furthermore, on the need for regular and in-depth reporting to be required from corporations and states parties;

Added27. Stresses the importance for the EU and the Member States to ensure that the LBI includes the duty to protect the rights and the safety of human rights defenders, defenders of the environment, journalists, workers and indigenous peoples and other marginalised groups, and to mainstream consideration for these groups throughout the instrument; insists, in particular, on the importance of enshrining the principle of the free, prior and informed consent of indigenous peoples;

Removed26. Expects the EU and the Member States to promote robust provisions on access to justice, including access to state-based judicial remedy, within the LBI, in line with their commitment to upholding the UNGPs;

Added28. Calls for the EU and the Member States to support the inclusion in the LBI of the fight against corruption along the lines of the UN Convention against Corruption, recognising that corruption facilitates, perpetuates and institutionalises human rights violations;

Removed27. Highlights the need for the LBI provisions on the rights of victims and rights-holders to spell out the means of ensuring the right to fair, adequate, prompt, non-discriminatory, appropriate and gender-sensitive access to justice, individual or collective reparations and effective remedy regarding human rights abuses caused or contributed to by companies;

Added29. Is concerned about the risks of forum-shopping and its impact on a level playing field, also in the context of the EU; urges for EU-level instruments to mitigate these risks, including a monitoring mechanism; emphasises, therefore, the need to ensure that countries implement robust and effective, yet practical and proportional, enforcement and compliance monitoring mechanisms; insists, furthermore, on the requirement for states parties to carry out regular and in-depth reporting; notes the potential role, in this regard, of the processes adopted to develop national action plans on business and human rights; notes that the EU mandate should ensure that requirements are designed in such a way that they can be aligned with current EU legislation in this area;

Removed28. Insists that the LBI should include the duty for states parties to develop a comprehensive and adequate system of legal liability that is responsive to the needs of victims, as regards remedy, and commensurate to the gravity of the abuse;

Added30. Expects the EU and the Member States to promote robust provisions on access to justice, including access to state-based judicial remedy, within the LBI, in line with their commitment to protecting victims, fighting impunity and upholding the UNGPs;

Removed29. Insists that the LBI should address the practical and procedural obstacles faced by victims of corporate abuse when seeking justice;

Added31. Highlights the need for the LBI provisions on the rights of victims and rights-holders to spell out the means of ensuring the right to fair, adequate, prompt, non-discriminatory, appropriate and gender-sensitive access to justice, individual or collective reparations and effective remedy regarding human rights abuses caused or contributed to by companies; notes that this should include the right to collective redress, access to legal aid, to be heard in all stages of proceedings, information held by business enterprises as defined within the jurisdictions concerned, and protection from reprisals and re-victimisation; considers that mechanisms to alleviate the evidentiary burden on victims should be provided for in the draft to facilitate the victim’s right to access remedy; considers also that states parties should allow for the adoption of interim or precautionary measures in urgent cases;

Added32. Insists that the LBI should include the duty for states parties to develop a comprehensive and adequate system of legal liability that is responsive to the needs of victims, as regards remedy, and commensurate to the gravity of the abuse, while avoiding facilitating abusive claims; insists, further, that the LBI should establish conditions in which the liability of companies can be duly established for harm they are responsible for;

Added33. Insists that the LBI should address the practical and procedural obstacles faced by victims of corporate abuse when seeking justice, inter alia by addressing the challenges faced by courts in claiming jurisdiction in a variety of situations, and ensuring that statutes of limitations are adequate and not unduly restrictive; insists on the importance of paying due attention to vulnerable or marginalised persons or groups in this context;

34. Welcomes the proposal for the establishment of an international fund for victims under the LBI that would provide legal and financial aid to victims seeking access to remedies;

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Added35. Insists that the LBI should confer sufficient powers on the Conference of Parties to establish mechanisms for monitoring the implementation of the LBI and make recommendations for possible further steps; considers that the committee established under the LBI should be empowered to receive and consider communications and complaints from individuals, communities or their representatives concerning human rights abuses by business enterprises covered by the LBI which are contrary to the provisions of the LBI, and concerning violations by a state party of any of the rights laid down in the LBI;

Added36. Calls on the Commission to step up its financial and technical support to national authorities in non-EU countries concerning business and human rights, in particular through (i) the adoption and implementation of national action plans under the UNGPs, (ii) the development of non-judicial mechanisms, such as ombudsman offices or national contact points, (iii) legislative initiatives aiming to protect whistle-blowers and to regulate business activities in relation to human rights and environment-related obligations, and (iv) the promotion and the provision of accessible and efficient remedies for victims; encourages the Commission to increase its support for civil society organisations in these areas;

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37. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the President of the UN Human Rights Council and the Chair of the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group.