Change The Law Limited
CtL Ltd
Change The Law Limited was founded in 2003 and works to contribute to the observance throughout the world of human rights as set out in the “Universal Declaration of human Rights” (UDHR).
ID: 215772141297-53
Lobbying Activity
Response to Sustainable corporate governance
23 May 2022
Change The Law Limited Submission to the EU on the
Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
The EU Commission’s Proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is welcomed.
The legislation is a good way to begin to create a level playing field and will help create legal certainty for companies.
Members of the Professional Training for Lawyers & Barristers in the United Nations Guiding Principles in Business & Human Rights Working Group (PTLB BHR WG) agree to 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 Development Goals. This will also include the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG’S).
The Mission of the group is to train law students and legal practitioners on the UN Guiding Principles (UNGP’s) on business and human rights (BHRT’s) 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 training will include courses in Law, Business and Business and Human Rights.
The group has 87 members in 27 countries.
The announcement of the EU Commission’s Proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is very timely.
From November 2019 to February 2020, the PTLB BHR WG had various meetings and discussions on the UNGP’s, SDG’s and international law including the Ecuador Treaty.
As part of the submission, we respectively request as a matter of urgency, that the EU Commissioner requests all countries to include mandatory training in the UNGP’s and Business and Human Rights in all Law degrees and Business degrees and Business & Human Rights degrees beginning in their Universities and Business Schools in all member states to be in place to begin as soon as possible. A period of 12-18 months to implement such training is recommended.
The training for an undergraduate degree can be three to four years. For a post-graduate diploma, this can be one to two years.
The CSDDD is planned to come into force in four to six years, therefore, “time is of the essence”.
It is also necessary to provide training in the UNGP’s and Business and Human Rights to all Lawyers, Barristers and Judges in all member states. We recommend this commences as above as soon as possible.
The lack of training should not be a factor to the successful implementation of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDDD).
The EU Directive cannot happen without the support, training and preparation by those companies that are based, active and or domiciled in the EU.
We are available to give guidance and training globally to ensure the appropriate training.
Linda Wood, Director of Change The Law Limited requests further considerations be addressed on the EU Commission’s Proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive to ensure greater clarity and fairness.
They include but are not limited to the following:
The scope of the companies and governments in the Directive. The scope is to include very large and large companies in the textiles, agriculture and extraction of minerals.
In the announcement on 23 February 2022, the EU Commissioner said this was to enable the Directive to go through in this Parliament. Any more would take longer to seek agreement.
The text should reflect that the Directive will increase the scope of companies with further additions as soon as possible.
My esteemed colleagues have made various remarks on limiting the scope to “established business relationship”. The CSDDD should not apply to just “established business relationships”. The CSDDD needs to apply throughout the global value chain.
Read full response