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Australian Regulator Signals Financial Climate Testing
March 28, 2017
In testimony before an Australian Senate Committee, Executive Board member of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority Geoff Summerhayes indicated his agency may require financial institutions to test climate change scenarios to ensure their investments can withstand the impacts of the phenomenon, and to disclose the results of this testing.
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Study: Investors Lack Tools to Monitor "Social" Impacts
March 27, 2017
Casey O’Connor and Sarah Labowitz of the NYU Stern Center on Business and Human Rights have released a study arguing that businesses must release more information on the social impacts of their operations in order to better inform investors on their efforts toward improved environmental, social, and governance (ESG) outcomes.
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Report: US Immigration Policy Will Pose BHR Risks
March 27, 2017
A new report by global risk analyst Verisk Maplecroft analyzing threats to business and human rights (BHR) contends that the Trump Administration’s immigration policies could endanger the human rights of undocumented immigrants and will increase the need for strong "human rights due diligence" efforts to ensure BHR-compliant sourcing of products and services.
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UN Debate Signals Tension over Medicine IP "Barriers"
March 27, 2017
A recent UN Human Rights Council discussion signaled the growing tension between proponents of a report from the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines who wish to lower intellectual property (IP) barriers to increase access to medicine and US and EU officials who warn of the impacts of such policies on medical research and development.
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UN Agent: States Must Protect Global "Right to Strike"
March 27, 2017
The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, Maina Kiai, has concluded that the "right to strike" has become a binding part of customary international law and has called on governments to respect their "positive obligation to protect this right" as a way to reduce the concentration of power in industry.