Business & Human Rights

NGOs Criticize Mexican BHR Action Plan

August 29, 2017

In a letter to the UN Working Group on business and human rights (BHR) issues, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations calling itself the Civil Society Focal Group on BHR in Mexico announced that it is refusing to endorse Mexico's National Program on BHR because it fails to meet several activist demands, including on corporate "due diligence" and access to remedy.
NGO Blasts Company over Refugee Processing Centers

August 29, 2017

A press release from Amnesty International criticizes infrastructure company Ferrovial for the operation by its subsidiary company of refugee processing centers on Nauru and Manus Islands, where Australia has sent asylum seekers arriving in its territory by boat, arguing that the company has been "complicit" in a migration system that amounts to "torture."
Spain Establishes BHR Action Plan

August 29, 2017

The Spanish Council of Ministers has announced its approval of a National Action Plan on the country's implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (BHR) that establishes a "Monitoring Committee" assessing government efforts to carry out BHR-related measures.
Academic: Ease Rules on Suing Businesses in US Courts

August 29, 2017

Gwynne Skinner of Willamette University College of Law calls on the US Congress to pass a law providing that federal courts have "general personal jurisdiction" over corporations doing business in the US and to allow would-be plaintiffs in other countries to sue these companies in US courts for alleged human rights violations that occurred in other countries.
Italy Plans Expansion in BHR Criminal Liability

August 28, 2017

The nongovernmental organization Human Rights International Corner describes a planned measure in the Italian National Action Plan to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (BHR) by providing for corporate criminal liability in the case of BHR violations when a company fails to perform proper "due diligence" on its global rights impacts.