2017 Reports

Submission on the draft General Comment on “State obligations under the ICESCR in the Context of Business Activities”

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) is grateful for the opportunity to provide input on the draft General Comment. As a joint center of Columbia Law School and the Earth Institute, we focus on international investment and its impacts on sustainable development. While human rights are critical to ensuring sustainable international investment, we have observed that the human rights framework is often ignored or misunderstood in the context of investment. We thus strongly support the Committee’s work in this area, and believe that the General Comment will play an important role in clarifying States’ obligations under the Covenant as they relate to investment regimes and projects.

Our submission focuses on the draft Comment’s discussion of: (1) host and home states’ obligations as they relate to international investment agreements (IIAs), (2) extraterritorial obligations in the context of outward investment, and (3) obligations related to corruption issues.