Importance of an International Treaty on Business and Human Rights

That the Parliament notes the recent negotiations during the UN Business and Human Rights Forum in Geneva on a binding treaty on business and human rights; acknowledges what it sees as the need for such a treaty to protect the rights of workers and communities to avoid businesses causing or contributing to adverse impacts through their own activities, and to help deal with the impact of such incidents when they do occur; believes that such a treaty should ensure that trade and investment can serve to support human rights rather than infringe them, strengthen international cooperation to ensure that communities negatively affected by business activities can access justice, protect human rights defenders, whose activism often puts them at great personal risk, particularly women who face gendered attacks, and guarantee the right to consent by indigenous and affected peoples; recognises the positive contribution that international civic society has played in the treaty negotiations to date, including the work carried out by Scottish organisations, such as SCIAF, Global Justice Now and Scotland’s International Development Alliance, and urges the UK Government to engage constructively in the treaty negotiation process.