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NGO Benchmarks Companies on BHR Issues
March 15, 2017
The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark has released its first report rating efforts by individual companies in the agricultural, apparel, and extractives sectors to implement the global business and human rights (BHR) agenda and calling for these businesses to do more to advance BHR due diligence, transparency, and responses to allegations.
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UN Discussion Focuses on State BHR Obligations
March 15, 2017
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recently held a wide-ranging discussion on a draft comment on the obligations of governments to regulate business activities under international human rights law, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (BHR).
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NGOs Warn Companies on US Data Use
March 15, 2017
A group of nongovernmental organizations has published a petition calling on US "data brokers" - businesses that retain and analyze data on people across the country, to refuse to permit the use of their data to assist in building a "Muslim registry" or to assist in "mass deportations" of illegal migrants and to perform due diligence to ensure their services are not used for these purposes.
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IOC Commits to UNGPs, Sustainability Agenda
March 15, 2017
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), under pressure from human rights and environmental activists, has agreed to include in its contract with the host cities of future Olympic Games a provision requiring the respect of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the UN's "sustainable development" agenda.
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UN Agent Claims Rights Violations in Housing Market
March 15, 2017
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Leilani Farha, has criticized governments for permitting financial institutions to drive up the cost of housing by treating it as "a financial asset for the wealthy" and calls on states to regulate investors to ensure their "actions are consistent with the obligation to realize housing as a human right for all."