PBI accompanied defenders from Guatemala and Honduras meet with the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Photo: PBI accompanied defenders with Working Group chairperson Fernanda Hopenhaym

PBI-Switzerland has noted: “Four PBI-supported human rights defenders participated in the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, as part of an international delegation representing environmental and social rights struggles.”

They add: “Among the defenders supported by PBI are Wendy Maldonado and Edgar Perez of the Bufete Jurídico de Derechos Humanos in Guatemala, Ubaldino García Canan of the Maya Ch’orti’ Council of Chiquimula, and Rocío Walkiria Reyes of CEHPRODEC in Honduras.”

Their article also highlights: “The defenders engaged with several UN mechanisms, including the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing and the Working Group on Business and Human Rights.”

“Together with Fernanda Hopenhaym, an expert from the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the delegation presented concrete examples of companies involved in serious abuses in Guatemala and Honduras.”

The PBI-Switzerland article can be read in full at Des défenseurs·euses des droits humains du Honduras et du Guatemala à Genève.

Rocio Walkiria of CEHPRODEC has also posted: “I want to tell you that I participated in the United Nations Palace in Geneva, sharing the challenges we have in Honduras facing an extractive economic model planted during the narco-dictatorship with a private company that, far from having an interest in respecting human rights, murders, criminalizes and persecutes community leaders. We are a legitimate civil society that works in the territories and does not lend itself to the game of the 10 families that do not pay taxes.”

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The Maya Ch’orti’ Council of Chiquimula also noted on Facebook an event in Hamburg that featured Ubaldino García Canan and Rocio Walkiria in the context of the UN COP29 climate talks having recently concluded in Azerbaijan.

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Binding Treaty talks now underway

While the Working Group has the “mandate to promote, disseminate and implement the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs)”, the visit of the PBI accompanied defenders also took place just prior to the 10th round of talks on the Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights. These talks are taking place December 16 to 20

PBI has long supported the call for a Binding Treaty.

Notably, La Via Campesina posted last week: “The Global Campaign to Reclaim People’s Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power, and Stop Impunity (also known as the Global Campaign) has published a paper on the efforts by corporate lobbies to expand the scope of the future Legally Binding Instrument (LBI) on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights. The paper argues that the proposed expansion to include ‘all businesses’—including state-run enterprises without a transnational character—would severely undermine the future instrument’s effectiveness, allowing transnational corporations (TNCs) to deflect their responsibilities and evade cross-border liabilities.”

Pablo Fajardo of Friends of the Earth Ecuador has commented: “Many Global South countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Palestine, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa, Cuba, Honduras and others are emphasizing the importance that the treaty focus on TNCs.”

Conversely, La Via Campesina has previously noted: “The countries who have not engaged or directly reject and have tried to stop the process are the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia, as well as other highly industrialized countries with a high number of TNCs headquartered in their territories.”