21 November 2024. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), together with the European Campaign for Corporate Justice, Clean Clothes Campaign, European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, Frank Bold, Oxfam, CIDSE, Anti-Slavery, and Friends of the Earth Europe, has published a Transposition Guide for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
The landmark legislation is the result of years of intense campaigning by civil society organisations, trade unions and affected communities to obtain EU legislation that requires large companies to prevent and address their human rights and environmental impacts along their value chains.
The CSDDD was finally adopted and published in the EU’s Official Journal in June 2024, with member states working to integrate the Directive’s content into their national legal systems over the next two years.
At this stage, states have the opportunity to address some of the remaining gaps in protection, aligning obligations with the authoritative international standards on business and human rights. States can further provide improved legal certainty and accountability for companies, as well as access to effective remedy for victims.
The Guide was developed to support civil society organisations at the national level to achieve ambitious and effective transposition, which is essential to meet the CSDDD’s objectives. Transposition must ensure a reversal of the burden of proof faced by affected communities and rightholders in the face of corporate abuses.
The Guide provides insights and recommendations for civil society groups on key priorities to address:
– effective access to justice;
– effective, meaningful and continuous stakeholder engagement; broader scope; and
– extended due diligence obligations to all relevant parts of the value chain, including the downstream activities of financial services.
Read the guide here