Business & Human Rights

EU-Vietnam Deal Addresses Labor but Not Civil Rights

July 24, 2019

The Asia Times reports that the European Commission (EC) has struck a free-trade agreement with Vietnam that includes labor rights standards but does not address activist calls for the EC to pressure the communist state to commit to respecting civil and political rights.
NGO Publishes Draft BHR Arbitration Rules

July 24, 2019

The Center for International Legal Cooperation has produced a set of draft arbitration rules with the aim of facilitating arbitration processes based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (BHR) to address alleged corporate violations of human rights.
NGO Study Examines Compliance with French “Duty of Vigilance”

July 24, 2019

The French organization Businesses for Human Rights has published a wide-ranging study that provides a broad overview of efforts by French corporations to comply with the country’s “duty of vigilance” law requiring them to report how they are addressing alleged human rights violations in their supply chains.
Article Seeks Mandatory Corporate Due Diligence in Australia

July 24, 2019

An academic and a researcher from a human rights NGO have published an article characterizing an Australian law requiring companies to report how they are addressing forced labor in their supply chains as “a step in the right direction” toward mandatory human rights due diligence regimes for businesses.
NGO Seeks German “Due Diligence” Law on Supply Chains

July 24, 2019

Citing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch has called on the German government to put in place a monitoring mechanism that would pressure companies to perform “due diligence” in addressing alleged rights violations in their supply chains.