PERSECUTION AND LABOR MIGRATIONS DUE TO CORPORATE "ENVIRONMENTAL" EXPLOITATION: WAITING FOR THE UNHRC's BINDING TREATY ON TRANSNATIONAL BUSINESS AcTIVITIES? Riccardo Vecellio Segate* Abstract Policy debates on the rights and international status of climate refugees, envi- ronmental migrants, or environmentally displaced persons have unleashed de- tailed scholarly commentaries over the last decade, and virtually all standpoints have been scrutinized in literature already. Nevertheless, one aspect of this de- bate has gone somewhat off the radar in recent years: the (co-)responsibilities of incorporated subsidiaries of transnational corporations in triggering or exacerbat- ing pseudo-environmentally motivated mass-movements of workers and related strata of the populations domiciled where these corporations operate. Despite such neglect, mentioned exploitative occurrences only increased in recent years, and the trend speaks for their further expansion as globalization complexifies, world population increases, and climate disruption worsens. Against this back- drop of urgency, it seems essential to rediscover this angle of the debate; that is, to revitalize ethical and legal discourses on private actors and what intervention should be required of the international community in order for transnational cor- porations to take action and observe minimal standards of environmental good practice, especially in corporate policy areas bearing a direct impact on labor conditions, social development, and ultimately on the pulling or restraining fac- tors of migration. The first international binding Treaty on business and human rights, currently being negotiated in Geneva within the United Nations Human Rights Council and apparently close to finalization, builds exactly on these con- cerns. In each of its 2018 Zero Draft, 2019 Revised Draft, 2020 Second Revised Draft, and 2021 Third Revised Draft, the Treaty provides protection to those workers and their families who are factually deprived of their lands due to corpo- rate soil exploitation. In this sense, the problem will manifest itself under the new (yet not so new) terms of distinguishing between migrations fully caused or sim- * Mr. Riccardo VECELLIO SEGATE is the Talent Program PhD Candidate in International Law at the University of Macau, and a Visiting Student Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. He previously served as an Exchange Scholar at Tsinghua Law School in Beijing and was selected as a Visiting Fellow at the Law & Technology Centre of the University of Hong Kong. He has completed, inter alia, a Postgraduate Diploma in European and Global Governance at the University of Bristol, a Master of Laws in Public International Law at Utrecht University, and three Diplomas in geopolitical affairs at ISPI in Milan. Prior to that, he enjoyed touring as a classical pianist. As a legal scholar, he has published peer-reviewed journal articles and delivered academic conferences worldwide and was awarded leading international research prizes. Furthermore, Mr. VECELLIO SEGATE has volunteered for UNESCO and worked extensively in policymaking and legal consulting all over North America, Europe, and Asia, including for the European Commission, EXPO2015, Oxford University Press, and Rouse Co. International LLP (Shanghai office). He sits on the International Advisory Board of the International Journal for the Semiotics of Law and has served as an ad-hoc peer reviewer for a wide range. Loyola University Chicago International Law Review Volume 18, Issue I 31