DIRECTIVE (EU) 2024/1760 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 13 June 2024 on corporate sustainability due diligence and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937 and Regulation (EU) 2023/2859 (Text with EEA relevance)

1. The right to life, interpreted in line with Article 6(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The abuse of that right includes, but is not restricted to, private or public security guards protecting the company’s resources, facilities or personnel causing the death of a person due to a lack of instruction or control by the company;

2. The prohibition of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, interpreted in line with Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This includes, but is not restricted to, private or public security guards protecting the company’s resources, facilities or personnel subjecting a person to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment due to a lack of instruction or control by the company;

3. The right to liberty and security, interpreted in line with Article 9(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

4. The prohibition of arbitrary or unlawful interference with a person’s privacy, family, home or correspondence and unlawful attacks on their honour or reputation, interpreted in line with Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

5. The prohibition of interference with the freedom of thought, conscience and religion, interpreted in line with Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

6. The right to enjoy just and favourable conditions of work, including a fair wage and an adequate living wage for employed workers and an adequate living income for self-employed workers and smallholders, which they earn in return from their work and production, a decent living, safe and healthy working conditions and reasonable limitation of working hours, interpreted in line with Articles 7 and 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;

7. The prohibition to restrict workers’ access to adequate housing, if the workforce is housed in accommodation provided by the company, and to restrict workers’ access to adequate food, clothing, and water and sanitation in the workplace, interpreted in line with Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;

8. The right of the child to the highest attainable standard of health, interpreted in line with Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the right to education, interpreted in line with Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the right to an adequate standard of living, interpreted in line with Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development, interpreted in line with Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the right of the child to be protected from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse and to be protected from being abducted, sold or moved illegally to a different place in or outside their country for the purpose of exploitation, interpreted in line with Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child;

9. The prohibition of the employment of a child under the age at which compulsory schooling is completed and, in any case, is not less than 15 years, except where the law of the place of employment so provides in line with Article 2(4) of the International Labour Organization Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No 138), interpreted in line with Articles 4 to 8 of the International Labour Organization Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No 138);

10. The prohibition of the worst forms of child labour (persons below the age of 18 years), interpreted in line with Article 3 of the International Labour Organization Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No 182). This includes:

11. The prohibition of forced or compulsory labour, which means all work or service that is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily, for example as a result of debt bondage or trafficking in human beings, interpreted in line with Article 2(1) of the International Labour Organization Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No 29). Forced or compulsory labour shall not mean any work or services that comply with Article 2(2) of the International Labour Organization Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No 29) or with Article 8(3), points (b) and (c) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

12. The prohibition of all forms of slavery and slave-trade, including practices akin to slavery, serfdom or other forms of domination or oppression in the workplace, such as extreme economic or sexual exploitation and humiliation, or human trafficking, interpreted in line with Article 8 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

13. The right to freedom of association, of assembly, and the rights to organise and collective bargaining, interpreted in line with Articles 21 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Labour Organization Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No 87), and the International Labour Organization Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No 98). Those rights include the following:

14. The prohibition of unequal treatment in employment, unless this is justified by the requirements of the employment, interpreted in line with Articles 2 and 3 of the International Labour Organization Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No 100), Articles 1 and 2 of the International Labour Organization Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No 111), and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This includes, in particular:

15. The prohibition of causing any measurable environmental degradation, such as harmful soil change, water or air pollution, harmful emissions, excessive water consumption, degradation of land, or other impact on natural resources, such as deforestation, that:

16. The right of individuals, groupings and communities to lands and resources and the right not to be deprived of means of subsistence, which entails the prohibition to unlawfully evict or take land, forests and waters when acquiring, developing or otherwise using land, forests and waters, including by deforestation, the use of which secures the livelihood of a person, interpreted in line with Article 1 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 1, 2 and 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

1. The obligation to avoid or minimise adverse impacts on biological diversity, interpreted in line with Article 10, point (b) of the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity and applicable law in the relevant jurisdiction, including the obligations of the Cartagena Protocol on the development, handling, transport, use, transfer and release of living modified organisms and of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity of 12 October 2014.

2. The prohibition on the import, export, re-export or introduction from the sea of any specimen included in the Appendices I to III of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) of 3 March 1973 without a permit, interpreted in line with Articles III, IV and V of the Convention;

3. The prohibition of the manufacture, import and export of mercury-added products listed in Annex A Part I to the Minamata Convention on Mercury of 10 October 2013 (Minamata Convention), interpreted in line with Article 4(1) of the Convention;

4. The prohibition of the use of mercury or mercury compounds in the manufacturing processes listed in Annex B Part I to the Minamata Convention after the phase-out date specified in the Convention for the individual processes, interpreted in line with Article 5(2) of the Convention;

5. The prohibition of the unlawful treatment of mercury waste, interpreted in line with Article 11(3) of the Minamata Convention and Article 13 of Regulation (EU) 2017/852 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 19 );

6. The prohibition of the production and use of chemicals listed in Annex A to the Stockholm Convention of 22 May 2001 on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs Convention), interpreted in line with Article 3(1), point (a), point (i) of the Convention and Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 20 );

7. The prohibition of the unlawful handling, collection, storage and disposal of waste, interpreted in line with Article 6(1), point (d), points (i) and (ii) of the POPs Convention and Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1021;

8. The prohibition of the import or export of a chemical listed in Annex III to the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (UNEP/FAO) of 10 September 1998, interpreted in line with Article 10(1), Article 11(1), point (b) and Article 11(2) of the Convention and indication by the importing or exporting Party to the Convention in line with the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure;

9. The prohibition of the unlawful production, consumption, import and export of controlled substances in Annexes A, B, C and E to the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the Ozone Layer to the Vienna Convention for the protection of the Ozone Layer, interpreted in line with Article 4B of the Montreal Protocol and licensing provisions under applicable law in relevant jurisdiction;

10. The prohibition of the export of hazardous or other waste, interpreted in line with Article 1(1) and (2) of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal of 22 March 1989 (Basel Convention) and Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 21 ):

11. The prohibition of the export of hazardous wastes from countries listed in Annex VII to the Basel Convention to countries not listed in Annex VII for operations listed in Annex IV to the Basel Convention, interpreted in line with Article 4A of the Basel Convention and Article 34 and 36 of Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006;

12. The prohibition of the import of hazardous wastes and other wastes from a non-party that has not ratified the Basel Convention, interpreted in line with Article 4(5) of the Basel Convention;

13. The obligation to avoid or minimise adverse impacts on the properties delineated as natural heritage as defined in Article 2 of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 16 November 1972 (the World Heritage Convention), interpreted in line with Article 5, point (d) of the World Heritage Convention and applicable law in the relevant jurisdiction;

14. The obligation to avoid or minimise adverse impacts on wetlands as defined in Article 1 of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat of 2 February 1971 (Ramsar Convention), interpreted in line with Article 4(1) of the Ramsar Convention and applicable law in the relevant jurisdiction;

15. The obligation to prevent the pollution from ships, interpreted in line with the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships of 2 November 1973, as amended by the Protocol of 1978 (MARPOL 73/78). This includes:

16. The obligation to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment by dumping, interpreted in line with Article 210 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 (UNCLOS) and applicable law in the relevant jurisdiction.