Business & Human Rights

Oxfam Pushes Food Companies to Reform Supply Chains

April 22, 2016

In its annual update on its Behind the Brands campaign, the nongovernmental organization Oxfam calls on food and beverage businesses to go beyond social and environmental commitments and to use their influence to impose these commitments on suppliers to ensure "a more sustainable food system."
IHRB Guides Kenya on BHR Action Plan

April 22, 2016

The nongovernmental organization Institute for Human Rights and Business ("IHRB") has developed a guide for the Government of Kenya on how best to develop a national action plan implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ("BHR") in the country.
Oxfam Calls for Global Response to US Corporate Tax Avoidance

April 22, 2016

Pointing to the use by large US corporations of offshore subsidiaries to store their funds, the nongovernmental organization Oxfam has called for governments around the world to collaborate "to end the era of tax havens" to fund the UN's social and environmental rights agenda and has argued for US corporate financial reporting on a country-by-country basis.
Swiss BHR Initiative Clears Procedural Hurdle

April 22, 2016

A Swiss citizens' initiative launched by a coalition of nongovernmental organizations to require Swiss-based businesses to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence in their foreign operations, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights ("BHR"), has garnered enough signatures to require consideration by the Swiss Government.
NGOs Use US Law to Challenge Business Supply Chains

April 22, 2016

Tim Fernholz writes that nongovernmental organizations ("NGOs") are preparing to use new US legislation to force federal authorities to halt the importation of products whose often-complex supply chains include what these NGOs assert to be forced labor.