Business & Human Rights

NGOs: BHR Treaty Must Address Trade Deals

November 01, 2016

A group of nongovernmental organizations known as the Treaty Alliance has called on the working group charged with developing a binding UN business and human rights treaty to establish the primacy of the treaty over any international trade and investment agreements and to set up a mechanism to monitor the BHR impacts of such trade deals.
EU Joins BHR Treaty Meeting amid NGO Pressure

November 01, 2016

The nongovernmental organizations Friends of the Earth Europe and the European Coalition for Corporate Justice have published an article touting their role in pressuring the EU to participate in an upcoming UN summit in Geneva on the development of a binding business and human rights treaty.
UN Agent Warns of Rights Impacts of Junk Food

October 31, 2016

AP reports that the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, has warned that governments are failing to implement global nutrition standards and ignoring the "right to adequate food" by permitting companies to distribute inexpensive, low-nutrition foods to poor people.
NGOs Call for UNHRC Pressure on South Africa Mining

October 31, 2016

A group of nongovernmental organizations have urged the UN Human Rights Council, as part of its 2017 Universal Periodic Review of South Africa, to pressure the country to impose expansive restrictions on mining activity within its territory to address the industry's social and environmental impacts in line with the UN's business and human rights agenda.
NGOs Seek EU Advancement of BHR Agenda

October 31, 2016

Representatives from a set of European nongovernmental organizations have published an article calling on the European Commission to impose legal obligations on companies throughout the EU to respect human rights and to require member states to grant alleged victims remedies for corporate violations of the global business and human rights agenda.