On Friday, March 10, the 90th regular
session of the Inter-American Juridical
Committee (CJI), held at its Rio de
Janeiro headquarters from March 6 to 10, drew to
a successful conclusion.
At the meeting the Committee adopted two reports that addressed mandates from the OAS General Assembly: one on “Conscious and Effective Regulation of Business in the Area of Human Rights”;
the other on “Cultural
Heritage Assets”.
In the case of the former, the CJI’s report contains a compilation of good practices, laws, and jurisprudence on the subject; different ways to advance conscious and effective regulation of companies; and draft “Guiding Principles on Corporate Social Responsibility in the Area of Human Rights and the Environment in the Americas,” which were approved by the Committee in 2014.
With regard to cultural assets, the Committee’s report analyzes regional and universal legal instruments, proposes further development of national legislation and invites member states to develop cooperation mechanisms to facilitate the implementation of existing instruments, in particular the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and
the 1976 Convention on the Protection of the Archeological, Historical, and Artistic Heritage of the American Nations (Convention of San Salvador). It also proposes the development of “User's Guide” on implementing conventional and soft-law instruments, including the design of strategies for the recovery and restitution of cultural assets.
The CJI also concluded its treatment of the issue of immunity of states and examined new studies on immunity of international organizations; law applicable to international contracts; representative democracy; application of the conventionality principle, and online arbitration in cross-border consumer transactions. The CJI added two new items to its agenda: one on binding and non-binding agreements and another on the validity of foreign decisions.
The Committee’s next regular session will be held at its headquarters in Brazil on 7 August 2017.
»
The reports adopted at the session may be consulted at
this link
![The Inter-American Juridical Committee Concludes its 90th Regular Session](http://www.oas.org/es/sla/ddi/imgs/boletines_informativos_90_periodo_sesiones_CJI_Abr-2017_1_g.jpg")
