Another Step on the Road? Remarks on the Zero Draft Treaty on Business and Human Rights

On 19 July 2018 the Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights released the Zero Draft legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises and soon afterwards, on 4 September 2018, the Zero Draft optional protocol to the zero draft legally binding instrument. The two Drafts represent the first outcome of the ongoing negotiations on a legally binding instrument on business and human rights. While they are meant to establish a general human rights framework of the future international governance of business activities, they show of course both strengths, on which the future sessions of the negotiating process should rely upon, and weaknesses that would need to be addressed, in order to achieve this objective. The paper aims to peek into their current structure and organization in order to focus on those issues that appear to be crucial from the point of view of the ability of a future Treaty to address corporate human rights violations and to assure effective protection to the victims of corporate abuse.