Reviewing examples from Kenya, India, Bangladesh, Georgia and Nigeria, The Reality of Rights demonstrates how political, social and economic obstacles leave victims of alleged human rights violations without remedy.

This discussion paper has been written to stimulate debate amongst corporate accountability campaigners and policy makers. This report aims to identify a way of filling the gap between, on the one hand, a series of relatively toothless soft law and self-regulatory initiatives, and, on the other hand, a domestic civil liability system which is fraught with difficulty for claimants.

To help directors clarify their obligations under the new law, CORE have produced this guide to assist directors in understanding their statutory duties under the Companies Act 2006. It is important both that directors working in the business and non-executive directors are fully aware of their responsibilities under the Act. It pays particular attention to the new codification of the ‘Duty to promote the success of the company’.

In 2005, MPs challenged the government to resolve inadequacies of the UK NCP: the government unit which is supposed to provide a degree of accountability for the environmental and human rights impacts of British companies operating abroad. This resulted in significant reforms to the NCP procedures. However, the findings in this new report indicate significant problems still remain and more needs to be done.

Any discussion about regulatory reform needs a regulatory context. This discussion paper examines options for future domestic law reform to curb alleged corporate abuse in other countries, against the background of eight case studies provided by CORE members.

The report reviews the implementation of the International Code on Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes; The Extractive Industries Transparencies Initiative (EITI); and The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and reveals how all have been breached by leading companies.

This report outlines options for regulating multinationals and improving access to justice. Niall Watson reviews challenges such as piercing the corporate veil, the integrated enterprise and group liability, direct liability of the parent corporation and addressing the multiplicity of multinational structures through the contractual interrelationships and the supply chain.