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

The briefing paper advocates for a legally binding international instrument to end corporate impunity regarding environmental and human rights abuses. It highlights the insufficiency of voluntary frameworks and argues that the LBI can operationalize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment by establishing mandatory due diligence, extraterritorial jurisdiction, and strict liability for parent companies across global value chains.

• 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 the only UN human rights forum with an explicit mandate to create a comprehensive binding regulatory framework for corporate accountability, though it faces opposition from industrialized states and corporate interests seeking to limit legal liability and extraterritoriality.
• The proposed legally binding instrument (LBI) can operationalize the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment by moving beyond company-controlled due diligence to include meaningful participation, free, prior and informed consent, and the 'right to say no' for affected communities.
• The LBI's Updated Draft includes specific articles to close accountability gaps: Article 6 (mandatory human rights due diligence), Article 7 (access to reparation), Article 8 (legal liability across corporate structures), Article 9 (cross-border jurisdiction based on corporate domicile), and Article 12 (mutual legal assistance).
• Recent international jurisprudence, including Advisory Opinions from the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, reinforces the need for states to regulate private actors through strict due diligence and the 'polluter pays' principle, including liability for parent companies for emissions of subsidiaries.

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} }