Business & Human Rights

UK Body Seeks Enforcement Mechanism for Labor Reporting Act

June 03, 2019

Lawmakers appointed by the UK government to provide an independent review of the country’s Modern Slavery Act have published a report calling, among other proposals, for a mandatory structure regarding corporate reporting on their efforts against forced labor and the enforcement of sanctions against companies that fail to comply.
UN Body Updates Emissions Standards for Shipping Industry

June 03, 2019

At meetings in May, the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted a series of measures aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of ships and reducing the maritime industry’s greenhouse gas emissions in line with the UN’s Paris climate accord.
French Officials Propose Audits for Online “Hate Speech” Removal

June 03, 2019

Politico reports that the French government has released a proposal to install regulators who could perform regular audits of social media companies’ removal of “hate speech” from their platforms and to force such businesses to publicize their internal processes for dealing with such content.
UN Network Joins Initiative on Private Sector SDG Action

June 03, 2019

As part of its efforts to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN Global Compact has announced that it has joined an initiative called P4G that pushes for public-private partnerships in support of “green growth” and five of the broad targets contained in the SDGs.
NGOs Push for Bolstered Rights Reporting by ASEAN Companies

June 03, 2019

A group of nongovernmental organizations recently published a report finding that human rights reporting by major companies listed on stock exchanges in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) “falls substantially short” of UN standards and urges such companies to prepare for a legally binding treaty on business and human rights.