Dr Grusic appointed legal expert for UN working group on business and human rights
6 September 2024
The open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights aims to elaborate a UN treaty on business and human rights.
Dr Ugljesa Grusic, Associate Professor at UCL Laws, has been appointed as one of five main legal experts for the intergovernmental working group, established in 2014 by the UN Human Rights Council pursuant to resolution 26/9.
The mandate of the IGWG is “to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises”. The IGWG has had nine sessions so far starting from 2015 and has produced several drafts of the UN treaty on business and human rights. The latest draft is available on the OHCHR website (.pdf).
At its 56th session on 11 July 2024, the Human Rights Council adopted decision 56/116 to enhance the support capabilities of the IGWG. Following a competitive process, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chair-Rapporteur of the IGWG selected five main legal experts and five alternative legal experts, who will support the work of the IGWG for at least three years. Each year, legal experts will meet for 10 full-day intersessional thematic consultations to discuss the articles of the draft treaty, and the discussion and findings will directly feed into the negotiations.