Business & Human Rights

NGO Seeks Tough Sanctions Under "Due Diligence" Laws

April 05, 2017

Jeffrey Vogt of the Solidarity Center writes that countries like Australia considering the adoption of a version of the UK Modern Slavery Act, which requires corporate reporting on efforts to rid their supply chains of forced labor, must close "loopholes" in the legislation by providing for "mandatory human rights due diligence" with "dissuasive sanctions" in case a breach occurs.
Paper Examines "Collaborative" BHR Impact Assessments

April 05, 2017

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Danish Institute for Human Rights, and Sciences Po Law School Clinic outline how businesses and NGOs could pursue a "collaborative" approach to "human rights impact assessments" to consider how best to implement the global business and human rights (BHR) agenda in corporate projects.
UN Group Seeks Spread of BHR "Due Diligence" Laws

April 05, 2017

The UN Working Group on business and human rights (BHR) issues has released a statement welcoming a new French law requiring companies to show they are performing "due diligence" to identify and address human rights impacts in their operations and supply chains and calling on other governments to follow France's lead in broadly implementing the BHR agenda.
Workshop Pushes for Strong CoE Guidelines on BHR

April 05, 2017

A recent workshop hosted by the Danish Institute for Human Rights gathered representatives from governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, and other institutions to generate proposals for a wide-ranging business and human rights (BHR) recommendation at a high-level seminar to be hosted by the Council of Europe (CoE) in June.
UNCTAD, GRI Partner to Promote “Sustainable” Investment

April 05, 2017

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have announced a new partnership to promote investment in companies that agree to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including by collaborating on the UN’s Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative.