CIDSE – COMECE joint statement, 13 February 2024
The Council of the European Union can be a game changer, by adopting the compromise text resulting from political trialogue negotiations last December on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). CIDSE and COMECE urge the EU Member States to support the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. at the next vote.
The negative impacts of corporate activities on human rights and the environment are not the hazardous and occasional externalities of business activities; they are often the consequences of an economic system that puts profit over people and the extraction of wealth over care for the planet.
Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence could become a reality after many years of advocacy efforts from civil society and faith-based and religious organisations. It is now on the Council of the European Union to ensure that the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is adopted to guarantee access to justice for those affected by corporate abuses.
Echoing the 2020 Catholic Bishops’ statement asking for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, CIDSE and COMECE call now on the governments of EU Member States to urgently adopt the compromise text resulting from political trialogue negotiations last December in order to address the threats risks that corporate activities pose to our Human Family and our Common Home.
Our call joins that of the 2023 Faith Leaders Statement calling on EU lawmakers to adopt a strong law holding companies accountable for their actions that damage the environment and abuse human rights, as well as that of a large number of EU citizens, European and global businesses, investors and international organisations such as the OECD, OHCHR and the ILO. Large, medium-size and small companies support the current compromise as “feasible and appropriate”.
As the 2020 Bishops’ statement stressed:
“Now more than ever, we need mandatory supply chain due diligence to stop corporate abuse and guarantee global solidarity.”
Cover image: Fishermen on the banks of the river Yamuna, surrounded by clouds of toxic foam on the water surface. A vast stretch of the Yamuna river is covered with white toxic foam, caused in part by pollutants discharged from industries surrounding New Delhi. India. Credit: Raunaq Singh Chopra / Climate Visuals CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.