Cian O'Callaghan
Ceist:10. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if the draft UN treaty on business and human rights was discussed at the European Council; and the position he took on same. [36238/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 26 November 2020
Ceisteanna (10, 53)
Cian O'Callaghan
Ceist:53. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he supports the draft UN treaty on business and human rights; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38197/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraFreagraí ó Béal (6 píosaí cainte)
Do the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Government support the draft UN treaty on business and human rights? What position is Ireland taking with regard to the draft treaty?
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 53 together.
This is somewhat linked to one of the questions I answered earlier. I will happily focus on the UN element of it. As the Deputy will appreciate, it would not be appropriate for the European Council to consider this matter at such an early stage in the process. The appropriate Council working group is engaged on the matter. Ireland participated in a range of discussions, both in Brussels and Geneva, relating to the EU's approach to the sixth session of the open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises, which took place from 26 to 30 October 2020.
As I mentioned in my response to an earlier question, the Union delivered a statement and separately raised specific concerns relating to the draft text on behalf of Ireland and other member states. The EU statement is publicly available on the website of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The statement welcomed some of the changes in the latest draft of the proposed treaty, highlighted further necessary changes, and outlined the many measures under way within the EU and across member states to give greater protection to human rights in the context of business activities.
The statement set out continuing concerns including the need for any such instrument to cover all businesses in a non-discriminatory manner; be consistent with the UN guiding principles on business and human rights; be realistically implementable and enforceable; and be supported by a critical mass of UN members.
The EU continues to develop its approach to the proposed legally binding instrument and Ireland continues to support a constructive and engaged approach.
The Deputy may know, separately, that the UN working group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises is reviewing implementation of the UN guiding principles on business and human rights and next year, on the tenth anniversary of the unanimous adoption of the principles by UN member states, it will set out proposals for a “decade of action on business and human rights” more generally.
I thank the Minister for the answer. The sixth round of negotiations on this took place in Geneva recently. While Ireland may have been represented in the room, if one counts that as participation, Ireland did not engage in the process and Ireland did not speak up on this. Ireland was silent on it. It is the case that the EU does not have an agreed mandate on this yet and I believe that it should. In the absence of an agreed mandate, and given how long it can take to get consensus on this in the Union and that there may never be consensus on this, I believe it is important that Ireland has a voice in this and is not silent.
Many of the concerns that the Minister raised about this previously, and which he has just articulated again about the treaty, must apply to all businesses to be fair, and not just to transnational corporations. Those concerns have now been addressed in the draft. Will Ireland now support this treaty, engage more, and not be silent at future negotiations?
As I stated previously, the EU made a statement on behalf of its member states at the sixth session of the working group, and raised a number of specific concerns on the draft text. While individual national statements can be important, in this context an EU statement on behalf of the 27 member states carries much more influence. Ireland, alongside fellow member states, helped to shape a coherent EU approach. I am aware that France made a statement, which included reference to some national initiatives while also highlighting some concerns with the current draft of the proposed treaty. These concerns are broadly similar to those reflected in the statement made by the European Union on behalf of member states. Both statements are publicly available on the UN Human Rights Council website. As I mentioned earlier, we are trying to be part of shaping a collective EU approach on this issue. That makes sense for all sorts of reasons in the context of how the European Union operates its Single Market and it applies standards and rules and regulations to businesses within that Single Market. We could do something very significant if we could be part of a group of proactive member states that progressed the issue at an EU level.
I do not agree with the Minister in terms of an approach across the European Union. The issue is that this has now been going on for quite some time. As the Minister correctly said, other member states made a statement, including France. I believe that the Irish people would like to see the Government make a statement on this in future negotiations in the absence of an agreed EU mandate. They would not like to know that our representatives go to these negotiations, do not make a statement and are silent. The Irish people would like to see accountability for corporations and businesses with regard to how their business activities impact human rights, workers rights and climate change on a global scale. It is not unheard of that a corporation or a business can have an excellent record on these domestically in Ireland and have a poor record abroad. There has to be accountability in this. I urge the Government to be more proactive in this in the future and to be more vocal.
There are two issues here. One is that we have to get our house in order domestically in respect of business and human rights. I answered questions earlier on what we are doing on that score. We have committed in the programme for Government to review what we had been doing for the past number of years so we can be a credible international contributor to the debate on this issue.
Second, at UN level and as an EU member state we must try to do everything we can to shape an approach within the European Union that is consistent across the Union, if possible, and which ensures the Union and its member states, go as far as we can to ensure the Union becomes a leader in the context of ensuring that not only transnational companies but also domestically focused companies are applying by a common standard and factor in human rights considerations in their business models, sourcing models, supply chains and so on.