Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Part 3: Concluding Observations
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to fulfill their international human rights obligations with
regard to business, and the scope of the responsibility directly
imposed on businesses is only now being better defined. As
this book has shown, there is no one forum available at the international
level to credibly set enforceable regulations or for
victims to directly address the responsibility of corporations.
After the successful move of some developed Member States
to kill the UN Commission on Transnational Corporations
before the Earth Summit in 1992, there was no similar body
set up to replace it, except a poor copy like the UN Global
Compact. There are other developments such as the adoption
by the UN Sub-Commission for the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights in August 2003 of the “Norms on
the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and other
Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights.” The
Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue
of human rights and transnational corporations and other
business enterprises, John Ruggie, concluded his work (2005-
2011) with the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human
Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect
and Remedy’ Framework.”
In 2011 the UN Human Rights Council established the
“Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational
corporations and other business enterprises.” 3
Consequently a Forum on Business and Human Rights was
established, which will hold its first session from 4-5 December
2012. Both the Working Group and the Forum on Business
and Human Rights are expected to discuss how to operationalize
the Guiding Principles. The UN Special Rapporteur on
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, James Anaya, has devoted several
of his reports on extractive industries.
Given the challenges faced, all these would be minimal,
but important, starting points. These offer further opportunities
for indigenous peoples to express their concerns and press
for change and better regulation of the extractive industries.
It is an imperative that indigenous peoples learn more
about the relevance of these norms, guidelines, mechanisms
and procedures and what experiences led to the creation of