Business & Human Rights

NGO Studies Strategic Litigation for Land Rights

August 03, 2017

In a study with broad implications for the global business and human rights agenda, the Open Society Foundations' Justice Initiative has published a report on the use of strategic litigation to support the land rights of indigenous peoples in Kenya, Paraguay, and Malaysia, finding that even unsuccessful litigation tended to "empower" indigenous plaintiffs.
NGOs Push G20 to Coordinate on BHR Policies

August 03, 2017

An event hosted in Berlin by a set of nongovernmental organizations focused on pressing Group of 20 countries (G20) to coordinate on measures forcing businesses to take action on "identifying, avoiding, mitigating, and remedying" violations of the business and human rights (BHR) agenda throughout their complex, global supply chains.
NGO Calls on France to Facilitate BHR Lawsuits

August 03, 2017

The nongovernmental organization Sherpa has issued a press release praising parts of the recently published French National Action Plan on business and human rights (BHR), including reinforcement of a "duty of care" standard for businesses on BHR issues, but calling for additional provisions facilitating the filing of BHR lawsuits against French companies.
UN Agent Pushes Panama to Enhance Financial Reporting

August 03, 2017

After an official visit to Panama, UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky called on the country's authorities to require financial institutions to exercise "due diligence" in monitoring and reporting tax evasion to ensure they are not shielding corporate and individual funds that could be used to advance economic and social human rights.
Paper: French Law Pursues BHR "Due Diligence" Principles

August 03, 2017

The International Bar Association (IBA) has published an article describing how a recently passed French law imposing a duty of "vigilance" on companies to monitor and report their efforts to reduce their negative global business and human rights (BHR) impacts is based in the corporate duty of "human rights due diligence" set out in the UN Guiding Principles on BHR.