Duty of Vigilance for Sub-Contractees in France

23.10.2017 Breaking news I received from Geneva

Last Thursday October 12th, ActionAid France-Peuples solidaires and Friends of the Earth France published a new report “Fin de cavale pour les multinationales ?” on corporate impunity. You can find it on the webpage we created : www.stopimpunité.org.

 The report describes the French legislative debate that gave birth to the “law on multinationals’ duty of care”, the first law which recognizes the legal responsibility of transnationals on their subsidiaries, subcontractors and providers in case of environmental and human rights abuses. It also highlights the need to go further with an international binding treaty.

It focuses on 3 case studies : 

• Total which imports palm oil for its French raffinery la Mède
• Société Générale which supports the construction of Rio Grande LNG terminal to export fracked gas from the US
• French supermarkets and the banana supply chain from Ecuador.

 Few days before the UN talks in Geneva on a binding treaty on transnationals and human rights, this report is a good reminder to governments that they need to act urgently to stop corporate impunity, and be at least as ambitious as the French law.