BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: SUBMISSION TO THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS

February 26, 2018

São Paulo | Bogotá

Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 Putting the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in the Context of the Inter-American System .................................................................................................................................................................. 2 Access to Remedies: Judicial and Non-Judicial Remedies, Monitoring Mechanisms, and National Action Plans ........................................................................................................................................................ 5 State Obligations to Provide Access to Effective Judicial Remedies ............................................... 6 Monitoring and Grievance Mechanisms .............................................................................................. 8 National Action Plans ...........................................................................................................................11 Human Rights Due Diligence ........................................................................................................................16 Indigenous Rights ............................................................................................................................................20 FPIC ........................................................................................................................................................21 The Right to Self-Identification ...........................................................................................................23 Benefits sharing ......................................................................................................................................24 Public-Private Partnerships ............................................................................................................................25 The State as an Economic Actor: State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) ...........................................................................................................................................29

Dejusticia & Conectas Human Rights, Submission to the IACHR & the ESCER SR on Business and Human Rights

Introduction 1. This document provides inputs to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) and the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (SR ESCER) for their development of a report that examines standards and criteria related to Business and Human Rights (BHR) under the Inter-American System. 2. Dejusticia (Colombia) and Conectas Human Rights (Brazil), two Global South NGOs with an international perspective have been contributing to the development of standards on BHR, in part through a critical and constructive dialogue with international bodies charged with disseminating and implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). 1 In particular, Dejusticia and Conectas have engaged the Working Group on Business and Human Rights (WG) through their Observatory on the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, which publishes comments and critiques of the UNWG’s annual and thematic reports and seeks to engage the UNWGs from a Global South Perspective. We have also participated and provided inputs during regional consultations, and are preparing the release of a comprehensive evaluation of the six years of the UNWG’s mandate. 3. At the national level, both organizations have worked on a variety of issues regarding implementation and of aspects of BHR obligations, particularly in light of the UNGPs. 4. Conectas’s national work on BHR in