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Companies Face BHR Complexities in Climate Adaptation
March 17, 2017
An article on the website Raconteur highlights the complexities involved in the corporate adoption of the global climate change agenda, as business and human rights (BHR) activists increasingly scrutinize corporate environmental efforts for human rights impacts on communities and call for stakeholder consultation and transparency to prevent BHR violations.
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Activist Seeks EU Involvement in BHR Treaty
March 17, 2017
An op-ed by Anne Van Schaik of Friends of the Earth Europe signals the dissatisfaction of human rights and environmental activists with the progress of "voluntary" business and human rights (BHR) measures, such as the UN Guiding Principles on BHR, and calls for EU participation in the establishment of a binding UN BHR treaty to "bring corporate actors to justice."
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EU Ministers Agree to Tax Avoidance Rules
March 17, 2017
Reuters reports that finance ministers of EU member states have agreed new rules seeking to require multinational companies to pay more taxes in the EU by amending rules allowing such companies to declare profits in low-tax jurisdictions and determining a common definition of "tax havens" to put pressure on non-EU countries with competitive corporate tax rates.
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NGO: Ireland Must Ramp up Corporate Tax Efforts
March 17, 2017
The nongovernmental organization Oxfam Ireland has published a report calling on the Irish government to reform the country's tax system to clamp down on businesses using treaties with other jurisdictions for tax avoidance and to promote international tax cooperation to force companies to pay for the fulfillment of the global human rights agenda.
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Lawyer Pushes BHR Due Diligence in New Zealand
March 17, 2017
Human rights lawyer Rebecca McAllum has called on businesses in New Zealand to adopt provisions of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (BHR) relating to performing comprehensive "due diligence" assessments of their BHR impacts to manage reputational and legal risks and to fulfill a "precondition" to entering many global markets.