Companies and human rights: Catalonia, against the current

On Monday, July 20, the creation of the Catalan Centre for Business and Human Rights (CCDH) was made official, a demand from Catalan civil society that, after many negotiations with different governments and failed attempts, has finally seen the light. At a time when the West seems to question the rules of global governance (supposedly) inspired by its values and driven by its supremacy, the emergence of such an institution in Catalonia is no small matter.Without a shadow of a doubt, it is the small artifact that can be given to a small country, recalling the song. Its value lies, once again, in proposing an anti-cyclical image, totally opposed to the spirit of times when the jurists of the International Criminal Court receive sanctions from the world's leading power for trying to make international law something more than a vademecum of forgotten laws. If Josep Pla were alive, it would be a truly typical local absurdity, effectively characteristic of the Gallic village into which we are turning, at a state and European level, in recent times, regarding (very) minimally coherent foreign policy.

During the past decade and at the beginning of this one, some European countries and the European Union itself began the process of giving themselves legislation that would allow them to contribute to monitoring and sanctioning the malpractices and violations of large companies in environmental and human rights matters through their global supply and production chains. In parallel, the United Nations Human Rights Council began to shape the Binding Treaty, a legally binding instrument, focused on access and cooperation in justice matters, and the prevention of accountability gaps in these global chains. However, with the change in the political cycle and perspective on what kind of rules we should have, neither Brussels, nor Geneva, nor any other capital (perhaps with the exception of Paris) have achieved anything other than what is merely decorative. Nor has Madrid, which wanted to advance the repeatedly watered-down European due diligence directive from the right, and which in the end chose to fight other battles.

Full stop. Or not, and this is where the importance of the CCDH lies. That in Europe, in an important capital like Barcelona, and precisely at the worst moment of the attempt to dismantle the architecture that has served to give us a basic framework for global coexistence and universal protection of the weakest (we must always remember why rights exist), an institution like this opens its doors means keeping alive a process that cannot be read solely in a Catalan key. The CCDH, to allay any concerns about the effect it may have on the competitiveness of our companies, cannot sanction any, unless they do not meet its information requirements. The spirit, which I find quite successful and realistic, in line with the powers of the Generalitat, is to become a kind of public service and a useful element for the coherence of public policy around global justice. That it has its own capacity to observe and investigate the planning, operation, and impacts of companies operating in Catalonia (whatever their nationality), and not limit itself to receiving and examining the documentation generated by them, is a step beyond the due diligence on which previous attempts have been based. From now on, somewhere in the world, not everything will revolve around corporate accountability, but public administration will be able to act ex officio and, more importantly, be the depositary of any complaints it may receive from affected individuals and groups worldwide. The CCDH, depending on the resources and capacities with which it is ultimately endowed, can become a key space for producing information, knowledge, awareness, and impact, and for reaching voluntary agreements in an always complex matter.It is an important commitment, not only for this change of concept and for continuing to produce rights internationally, but also regarding the role of sub-state administrations within Europe itself. In this critical global scenario, the dispute over the decentralization of power and the quality of democracies connects with different proposals on how to continue with economic globalization. Fortunately, it seems that Catalonia is clear that this must be fair for everyone, not simply a way to maintain the privileges of its society, at any cost.