Businesses and human rights: Catalonia, against the current

On Monday, July 20, the creation of the Catalan Center 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, remembering the song. Its value lies, again, in proposing an anti-cyclical image, totally opposed to the sign 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 typical homegrown absurdity, indeed characteristic of the Gallic village we are becoming, 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 bad practices and violations by large companies regarding the environment and human rights 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), such an institution opens its doors means keeping alive a process that cannot be read solely in Catalan terms. The CCDH, to allay any concerns about the effect it may have on the competitiveness of our companies, cannot sanction any of them, unless they do not comply with its information requirements. The spirit, I find it quite accurate 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 regarding 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 rather public administration will be able to act on its own initiative 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 finally endowed, can become a key space for producing information, knowledge, awareness, and impact, and for reaching voluntary agreements on an always complex matter.It is an important undertaking, 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 for the decentralization of power and the quality of democracies connects with the 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.