Business & Human Rights

UN Report Targets BHR Issues in Agriculture

October 28, 2016

The UN Working Group on business and human rights (BHR) issues has released a report examining the obligations the UN Guiding Principles on BHR place on "agro-industrial" businesses and governments to mitigate human rights impacts of agricultural operations on local communities.
Article Seeks Rights Regime in Investment Treaties

October 28, 2016

Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute for Environment and Development writes that governments should integrate global human rights standards in their negotiations over international investment treaties to protect local communities from "land grabbing" by multinational corporations.
Survey Shows Complexity of Forced Labor Reporting

October 28, 2016

A recent survey describing corporate responses to UK legislation requiring companies to publicly report their efforts to end forced labor in their supply chains shows the complexity companies face in gathering data and developing "remedial action plans" to fulfill the goals of the legislation.
EU Centralizes Policies on Corporate Tax Calculation

October 27, 2016

The European Commission has announced its proposal for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base, which imposes a single system throughout the EU for calculating taxable corporate profits and discourages so-called "aggressive tax planning" by multinational companies to avoid paying taxes in EU member states.
NGOs Publish Principles of Ideal BHR Treaty

October 27, 2016

Basing its recommendations on a series of consultations with nongovernmental organizations promoting the global human rights agenda, a pair of human rights coalition groups have produced a set of legal principles for inclusion in a binding UN business and human rights treaty that would require countries to impose robust BHR requirements on their businesses.