Spain – Business, Human Rights and Environment: For a Law “Made in Spain”
The Platform for Responsible Business (PER), of which the NGOs Entreculturas and Alboan are members, has launched a campaign to call for a Spanish due diligence law that would oblige Spanish companies to incorporate measures to respect human and environmental rights, and facilitate access to justice for people negatively affected by business activity in third countries.
Since the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were approved more than a decade ago, much progress has been made in defining corporate due diligence obligations. However, the effectiveness of the various guidelines has been limited. There are too many documented cases showing the ease with which some multinational companies have managed to evade liability, while victims are still waiting for redress.
Some European countries have already adopted national laws establishing binding corporate due diligence obligations, as well as sanctioning regimes and provisions to facilitate access to justice. First it was France in 2017, then the Netherlands in 2019, and finally Germany and Norway in 2021.
To homogenize the playing field, avoid fragmentation and give legal certainty to European companies, in February this year the European Commission published a proposal for a directive on due diligence that will soon be debated in the European Parliament. In May, more than 220 civil society organizations denounced the existence of major loopholes in the text. Together with the CIDSE Network, they published an analysis in which they noted that the definition of adverse impacts on human rights and the environment is very limited, the participation of stakeholders in the due diligence process does not take into account the gender perspective or the particularities of some vulnerable groups, and will leave 99% of European companies out of obligation.
In view of the delay in the negotiations of the directive and its current limitations, there are initiatives in Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland and Spain to promote national laws. The Platform for Responsible Business has prepared a technical proposal in this regard and hopes that a law "Made in Spain" can be passed during this legislature.
From the PER they are calling on the members of the Spanish Parliament to approve a #LeyMadeInSpain. You can sign the petition at visibles.org. Respect for human and environmental rights cannot wait.
Source: Jesuitas Social
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