The Popular Initiative for “Responsible Multinational Businesses” has received more than 140,000 signatures since it was launched a year ago. 100,000 signatures is the required threshold for a Popular Initiative to have a place on the Federal Council’s political agenda. According to the seventy-seven organizations from civil society behind this initiative, Switzerland’s population will get to vote on the issue at the earliest at the end of 2018. The public will vote on requiring multinationals with their head offices in Switzerland to incorporate due diligence in the protection of human rights and the environment in all their business activities and should a company violate this requirement then it will be liable for damages incurred abroad.
The proposed text intends to require companies to prove reasonable due diligence: notably via identification of the immediate and potential impacts of their actions on recognized international human rights and the environment; then via the adoption of effective measures to address the potentially negative impacts identified; and finally report in a transparent manner on the violations identified, as well as on the related measures taken.
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