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Irish Legislation Requires National Fossil Fuel Divestment
August 01, 2018
The Guardian reports that, in line with the growing global movement for divestment from fossil fuels, the lower house of the Irish parliament has passed legislation requiring the country’s national investment fund to sell its investments in companies with substantial revenue from oil, gas, coal, and peat extraction or refinement “as soon as is practicable.”
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NGO Blames Banks for Extractives’ BHR Violations
August 01, 2018
The nongovernmental organization Facing Finance has published a report accusing 10 European banks of “violating human rights and damaging the environment” by investing in “dirty” extractive companies that fail to commit to international social and environmental standards rooted in the business and human rights (BHR) agenda.
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Researcher Calls for Inclusion of Rights in AI Strategies
July 31, 2018
Oxford researcher Dr. Emre Eren Korkmaz writes that governments developing strategies regarding promotion of artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies must include in their planning a broad range of nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders to ensure these strategies heed the economic and social rights agenda.
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Microsoft Chief Calls for Regulation of Facial Recognition Tech
July 31, 2018
Tech giant Microsoft’s President Brad Smith has called on Congress to appoint a bipartisan expert commission to issue recommendations on how best to regulate facial recognition technology, arguing that voluntary business conduct is no substitute for democratically accountable legislative action.
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UN Observers Advise Kenya on Implementing BHR Agenda
July 31, 2018
At the end of its recent visit to Kenya, the UN Working Group on business and human rights (BHR) issued a statement welcoming the country’s development of a BHR national action plan and setting out a broad range of guidelines regarding how the country could improve on implementing the BHR agenda.