As a result of ongoing violations of human rights by TNCs such as the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh that killed 1,132 factory (mostly female) workers, the 2012 Marikana massacre of 34 miners in South Africa, the ongoing destruction caused by Shell in Nigeria’s Ogoniland and by Chevron in the Ecuadorean Amazon as well as the human rights violations linked to the Cerrejon Coal mine in Colombia - along with countless others - the need for radical action to control the devastating violations by TNCs has never been more urgent.

In order to push the UNHRC to adopt this type of binding Treaty, a coalition of social movements, networks and civil society organizations is organizing a full week of mobilization.

The goal of the week of mobilization is not only to pressure the UNHRC on the issue of binding norms for TNCs but also to expose the global political and economic ’Architecture of Impunity’ that has been protecting the operations of TNCs at the expense of human rights for decades through Investment Agreements (and arbitration tribunals such as World Bank’s ICSID), through the WTO, and a long history of IMF imposed structural adjustment programs now replicated in Europe through the Troika & Competitiveness Pact policies and a number of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), as well as bilateral FTAs such as NAFTA, FTA EU-Colombia, TTIP, TPP and TISA, among others.

In the face of intensifying and increasingly egregious corporate human rights violations and ecological crimes, impacted communities and social movements demand access to justice and a definitive end to the systematic impunity which prevails for transnational corporations.

The Week of Mobilization to Stop Corporate Crimes and Impunity will take place from 23 to 27 June 2014 in Geneva during the last week of the 26th session of the UNHRC, when the Council will be deciding on this initiative.

This week of activities represents an important convergence moment for social movements and Civil Society Organizations to collectively work for a more profound and effective system to defend human rights from corporate violations, especially the rights of those affected by the environmental crimes and other human rights violations of transnational corporations.