Change The Law - changing the law for the good of all
This is a very exciting time globally in Business and Human Rights.
There are now, more than before, many new laws, changes to laws, regulations and new initiatives that have emerged and are emerging on Business and Human Rights and the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG'S) across the world.
Individual countries are proposing, implementing and regulating business to protect the rights of peoples and the environment.
There are two major changes. The International Legally Binding Instrument to regulate global business activities with respect to international human rights and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, this Directive is to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour and to anchor human rights and environmental considerations in companies’ operations and corporate governance.
Legally Binding Instrument
On 26 June 2014, the UN Human Rights Council confirmed it was going “to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group (OEIGWG) on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, whose mandate shall be to elaborate an international legally binding instrument (LBI) to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.”
For further information on the history of the OEIGWG and the progress made on the LBI, is on the United Nations Human Rights Council website. The link to the webpage is 
here.
This year in 2024, there is the 10th session of the OEIGWG LBI, there is a Roadmap for all States and participants to follow.
If a Treaty is agreed, it would ensure a level playing field across the world.
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)
On 29 April 2020, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, announced that the Commission has committed to introducing rules for mandatory corporate environmental and human rights due diligence, as part of a Sustainable Corporate Governance initiative. The EU Commissioner requested feedback on the proposals through an online public consultation.
Change The Law Ltd made a submission to the EU Commissioner October 2020.
The work on the submission was with some of the members of a group created by Change The Law Limited, the Professional Training for Lawyers & Barristers in the UN Guiding Principles in Business & Human Rights Working Group. Those who worked on the submission are acknowledged on page 1 of the submission, which is found here.
A further submission was made to the EU Commissioner on 8 February 2021 made jointly with the IBA Business & Human Rights Committee and IBA Legal Policy & Research Unit and Change The Law Limited.
On 23 February 2022, the EU Commissioner published the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) Draft.
The CSDDD draft began as the EU Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence Directive.
Over the following two years, 2022-2024, there were various changes, including the qualifying threshold of the companies included in the scope was reduced, agreements and then, no agreement by some States.
Then the CSDDD passed all the votes with the final vote to be held on 24 May 2024.
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Change The Law Limited created a global working group in 2018, who are Lawyers, Barristers, Legal Practitioners, Academics, NGO's, Members of the UN and Members of the International Bar Association and Business Leaders. There are 85 members in 27 countries. The group's mission is to train law students and legal practitioners on the UN Guiding Principles on business and human rights (BHRTs) on the implications of human rights in their legal practice, beyond litigation and how to defend and prosecute it, to ensure standards are met globally consistently with best practice in Ethics and Professional Standards.
The group, The Professional Training for Lawyers & Barristers in the UN Guiding Principles in Business & Human Rights Working Group, work collaboratively to engage with (those) and positively influence the adoption and implementation of the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework and the UN Guiding Principles into the education, training, practice, ethics and professional standards. Respect for human rights is necessary for the implementation of the Sustainability and Development Goals (SDG's). Therefore, where possible, this will also include the SDG’s. The standards are to be established on a global basis.
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