La relevancia del Instrumento Internacional Jurídicamente Vinculante de las Naciones Unidas para regular las actividades de las empresas transnacionales y otras empresas como palanca estructural para la justicia ambiental

This briefing paper argues for the adoption of a United Nations legally binding instrument (LBI) to regulate transnational corporations as a structural lever for environmental justice. It highlights the failure of voluntary frameworks to ensure corporate accountability for ecological destruction and human rights abuses, proposing that a binding treaty would operationalize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment through mandatory due diligence, extraterritorial jurisdiction, and effective remediation.

• Existing international frameworks for corporate accountability, such as the UN Global Compact and the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), are insufficient because they are non-binding and lack enforceable obligations, investigation mechanisms, and reparations.
• The Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group (OEIGWG) is currently developing a legally binding instrument (LBI) to regulate transnational corporations. The process has faced opposition from industrialized states and corporate interests seeking to limit legal liability and extraterritoriality, though a 24-article Updated Draft now serves as the basis for negotiations.
• The LBI is positioned as a structural tool to transform the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment into enforceable obligations. This includes strengthening prevention through mandatory due diligence, ensuring the 'right to say no' via free, prior, and informed consent, and establishing strict civil, administrative, and criminal liability for parent companies and controlling entities.
• Recent international jurisprudence, including Advisory Opinions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, reinforces the need for states to regulate private actors. The Inter-American Court specifically emphasizes that states must require companies to conduct human rights and climate due diligence across their entire value chains and apply the 'polluter pays' principle.
• The document identifies a conflict between international human rights standards and trade/investment agreements. The latter often grant transnational corporations stronger rights than local communities, utilizing Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms to evade local labor and environmental laws.
• The briefing cites several global examples of corporate environmental and human rights abuses: forced evictions in Uganda (Mubende district) and toxic waste in Chile (Arica); mining-related displacement and pollution in Senegal and Serbia; land grabbing in India and Brazil (MATOPIBA region); and health impacts from war-related pollution in Iraq.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2025). La relevancia del Instrumento Internacional Jurídicamente Vinculante de las Naciones Unidas para regular las actividades de las empresas transnacionales y otras empresas como palanca estructural para la justicia ambiental. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SPA_FES_FIAN-Briefing-Paper_March-2026_FINAL.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. La relevancia del Instrumento Internacional Jurídicamente Vinculante de las Naciones Unidas para regular las actividades de las empresas transnacionales y otras empresas como palanca estructural para la justicia ambiental. 2025. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SPA_FES_FIAN-Briefing-Paper_March-2026_FINAL.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=La relevancia del Instrumento Internacional Jurídicamente Vinculante de las Naciones Unidas para regular las actividades de las empresas transnacionales y otras empresas como palanca estructural para la justicia ambiental |date=September 2025 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SPA_FES_FIAN-Briefing-Paper_March-2026_FINAL.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2025relevancia, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{La relevancia del Instrumento Internacional Jurídicamente Vinculante de las Naciones Unidas para regular las actividades de las empresas transnacionales y otras empresas como palanca estructural para la justicia ambiental}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2025}, month = sep, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SPA_FES_FIAN-Briefing-Paper_March-2026_FINAL.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }