OPEN LETTER. More than 90 Global South organizations and front-line defenders demand a human rights-focused Corporate Due Diligence Directive from EU

12.12.2023.- Tomorrow, Wednesday, December 13, what may be the last negotiating session of the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) will take place. For this reason, 93 organizations and individuals from the Global South committed to the defense of human rights and the environment have published a letter addressed to the Spanish presidency of the Council of the European Union, to Lara Walters, the person in charge of the dossier, and to Didier Reynders, the EU Commissioner for Justice. 

The signatories of the letter demand that the European Due Diligence Directive puts the protection of human rights and the environment at the center and puts an end to “business as usual”. Their demands include the following: 

1. Protect our rights and the environment
2. Protect our climate and our future
3. Defend our rights and access to justice
4. Ensure that we are taken into account: Meaningful and safe stakeholder engagement
5. Ensure obligations for all those who cause harm.

The letter has also been signed by 73 European civil society organizations committed to the defense of Socio-Environmental Justice and Integral Ecology, including the Jesuit European Social Center (JESC) and the Alboan Foundation, both of which are part of the Justice in Mining Network.   

Read the full letter in Spanish here.

Read the full letter in English here.