12th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights | Intervention Submitted
- JPTi
- Nov 27, 2023
- 1 min read
Updated: Jul 20
On 27 November 2023, JPTi formally submitted a letter of protest to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Trade Centre, and the International Organization of Employers, expressing serious concern over the marginalization of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in the official discourse of the 12th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights.
Our proposed session—“Human Rights and SMB Entrepreneurs”—was designed to foreground the lived realities of entrepreneurs as both rights holders and victims of systemic violations, yet was ultimately co-opted, rebranded, and stripped of its human-centric framing. Instead of amplifying entrepreneurial voices, the final agenda focused exclusively on SMEs as duty bearers, ignoring the widespread erosion of entrepreneurial rights in weak democratic contexts, where they suffer unfair trials, property expropriation, and financial repression.
JPTi’s letter underscores the unintended yet harmful consequences of applying the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and FATF-driven Risk-Based Approaches to entrepreneurs without adequate safeguards. These frameworks—while vital—have facilitated procedural abuses, due process violations, and discriminatory financial regulations, particularly in fragile and authoritarian systems.
As part of this submission, we call for:• Recognition of entrepreneurs as a distinct rights-bearing group,• Procedural protections akin to those afforded to human rights defenders, and• A fundamental rebalancing of international discourse that upholds human dignity, innovation, and justice within business regulation.
Our full submission is available upon request and has been sent to key UN stakeholders and Permanent Missions, including those of Argentina, Ghana, the Russian Federation, and Switzerland.
