Ahead of the 12th session of the United Nations, UN treaty negotiations holding in Geneva, Switzerland, from October 19, 2026, to October 23, 2026, activists and community representatives drawn from across Africa have made a case for African stakeholders to back the end of minerals exploitation, corporate accountability, removal of barriers to justice and remedy, and the protection of communities impacted by the operations of corporate entities.
This formed the crux of discussions at a virtual convergence on Confronting Corporate Impunity in Africa Towards a People’s Declaration on an Internationally Legally Binding Instrument on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights organized by the Groundtruth Africa Network (GtAN).
The group gathered together speakers from across Africa to present a common front at the UN treaty negotiations to speak to issues of mineral exploitation, continuing oil pollution, mining of solid minerals, and deforestation caused by big agricultural corporations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, Zimbabwe’s miners, and allied corporations across Africa.
The Speakers include the Executive Director of CONCRET-S/Human Rights, Madagascar, Volahery Andrianmanantenasoa, Executive Director Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG) in Zimbabwe, Board Chairman, Egyptian Foundation for Environmental Rights (EFER), Ahmed Elseidi, Senior Campaign Coordinator, StopACOP Coalition, South Africa, Zaki Mamdo, Publisher of AmazonaAfrica Magazine, Chief Constance Meju, as well as Climate Justice Campaigner, Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) and Community Development Advocacy Foundation (CODAF), Maimoni Ubrei-Joe, among others.
At the well-attended convergence, moderated by Ubrei-Joe, the participants demanded an internationally legally binding instrument that establishes enforceable human rights and environmental obligations for transnational corporations and other business enterprises, as well as complements strong national laws and institutions.
They insisted that the treaty should establish clear and enforceable corporate obligations throughout business operations and relationships, and corporate responsibility should not depend solely on voluntary commitments or corporate social responsibility programmes and must reaffirm the primacy of human rights norms over trade and investment treaties and develop specific state obligations in this regard.
“The treaty should require mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence as well as preventive and precautionary measures that identify, prevent, mitigate and address actual and potential impacts and include meaningful consultation and participation by affected communities and workers.
“It should require appropriate civil, administrative and, where applicable, criminal liability for corporations and responsible individuals involved in human rights abuses, and corporate legal structures should not automatically prevent victims from obtaining remedy.
“The treaty should establish parent-company and corporate-group responsibility where abuses occur through subsidiaries, contractors, subcontractors, joint ventures or other business relationships and where a parent company exercises control, direction, significant influence or other relevant forms of responsibility.
“The treaty should guarantee meaningful access to courts and other effective remedy mechanisms by addressing excessive litigation costs, judicial delays, lack of legal assistance, limited access to evidence, information asymmetry, jurisdictional barriers, restrictive applicable-law rules, difficulties enforcing judgments and other cross-border barriers.
“Remedies should, where appropriate, include restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, guarantees of non-repetition and environmental restoration, together with other measures necessary to repair harm suffered by communities and ecosystems,” the communique adopted at the end of the convergence stated.
Other demands from the document presented by Professor Carl-Isibor Oshodi as the rapporteur include that the treaty should protect environmental defenders, human rights defenders, journalists, trade unionists, community leaders and others who expose corporate abuses from intimidation, violence, harassment, criminalization and retaliation.
That indigenous peoples and affected communities should have meaningful participation in decisions concerning projects affecting their lands, territories, resources, culture and livelihoods. The Treaty should recognize the Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent to both Indigenous Peoples and affected communities.
That it should establish mechanisms for extraterritorial accountability so that corporations domiciled or headquartered in one jurisdiction can be held accountable for human rights impacts associated with activities and business relationships outside that jurisdiction.
The convergence also advocated a treaty that should establish an International Tribunal on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations that would have jurisdiction over transnational corporations and other business enterprises that undertake business activities of a transnational character, as the scope defined in the Treaty.
It should establish effective international cooperation for investigations, evidence gathering, information sharing, mutual legal assistance, enforcement of judgments, prosecution of serious offences and other forms of cross-border accountability.
“The treaty should reinforce corporate responsibilities concerning occupational health and safety, freedom of association, collective bargaining, decent work, freedom from forced and child labour and other internationally recognized labour rights.
“The treaty should recognize differentiated impacts on women, girls and other groups experiencing structural inequalities and guarantee their meaningful participation in decision-making, complaints and remedy processes.
“The treaty should acknowledge the relationship between environmental degradation and human rights and should provide prevention, accountability and remedy for pollution, ecosystem destruction, biodiversity loss, climate harm and destruction of natural resources.
“The global transition towards renewable energy and low-carbon development must respect human rights and must not reproduce extractive patterns that disproportionately harm African communities,” it added.
A Call To African Governments
●African governments should strengthen the independence, resources and technical capacity of regulatory agencies and guarantee meaningful community participation in decisions affecting communities and their environments and strengthen national laws regulating transnational corporations and other business enterprises and ensure that environmental, labour and human rights standards are effectively enforced.
●African governments should protect human rights and environmental defenders, strengthen judicial and non-judicial remedies, improve transparency concerning corporate ownership, contracts and beneficial ownership, and ensure accountability for environmental and human rights abuses.
●African governments should cooperate in cross-border investigations and enforcement, support an ambitious and legally binding United Nations treaty, and ensure that national development strategies do not encourage investment at the expense of human rights, environmental protection and community welfare.
●African governments should reinforce their commitment to the drafting of this treaty and form a united and effective African solidarity bloc to ensure that the realities of African peoples who are among those most affected by Transnational Corporations’ impunity are appropriately taken into account and that their rights are effectively protected by this treaty.
Call To UN And Treaty Negotiators
●States negotiating the treaty on minerals exploitation in Africa should recognize that corporate activity is increasingly global while legal accountability remains largely national, and they should establish common and enforceable standards that prevent corporations from exploiting differences between national legal systems.
●The treaty should ensure that corporate power is subject to enforceable human rights obligations, victims have access to effective remedies, corporate structures cannot be used to evade responsibility, communities can participate in decisions affecting them, defenders are protected, States cooperate across borders, and human rights and environmental protection remain central to corporate regulation.
●The treaty on minerals exploitation should reflect the experiences of communities in Africa and other regions of the Global South that have historically faced significant difficulties in holding powerful corporations accountable.
Commitment And Way Forward
●The participating organizations and civil society actors committed themselves to continued advocacy for stronger corporate accountability, continued documentation of affected communities’ experiences, support for environmental and human rights defenders, engagement with African governments and sustained participation in the international treaty process.
●The convergence affirmed that African voices must remain central to the development of the international accountability framework and that the experiences of communities affected by corporate activities must inform both national implementation and the global treaty process.
●The participants reaffirmed that the people of Africa should not have to choose between development and fundamental rights and that corporate investment should contribute to sustainable development while respecting human rights, environmental integrity and community rights.
Conclusion
The convergence concluded that corporate accountability cannot depend solely on voluntary commitments or the effectiveness of individual national legal systems because weak, fragmented or poorly enforced laws can leave communities exposed to environmental destruction, loss of livelihoods, displacement, unsafe working conditions and other human rights impacts. The participants therefore called for a strong, effective, comprehensive, enforceable and rights-centred international legal framework capable of regulating transnational corporate conduct across jurisdictions, closing accountability gaps, strengthening national enforcement and ensuring effective access to justice and remedy.
The People’s Declaration on Corporate Impunity in Africa will be presented as a collective contribution to the United Nations treaty process and as an advocacy instrument for African governments, treaty negotiators, United Nations institutions, civil society organizations and other stakeholders.
Other partners that endorsed the declaration include the Community Development Advocacy Foundation (CODAF), Neferok Development Initiative (NDI), Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI), Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN), African Centre for Environmental and Rural Development (ACERD), FIDEP Foundation, African People, and impacted communities.
