Protecting Rights. Ending Corporate Abuse

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Bridging the gap: How could a UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act have made a difference?

This report documents how well-known UK companies, financial institutions and public bodies have been and continue to be connected to human rights abuses, worker exploitation and environmental harm at home and abroad. These abuses are happening via the companies’ own operations, products and services, and across their global value chains. Access to justice for those...

Cerrejón’s open pit mine (Colombia)

Cerrejón’s mining operations have led to the dispossession and displacement of 35 Wayúu Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities from their ancestral land, at times by brutal police evictions. The companies have been continuously expanding the mining operations and diverting streams used by the local communities throughout its operation. In 2005, Cerrejón extended its rail line and...

Land-grabbing for palm oil (Liberia)

Communities in Liberia claim that Equatorial Palm Oil’s (EPO’s) oil palm plantations have encroached on their land, which was illegally cleared for plantation, and that activities went ahead without their consent. As a result, they have lost their livelihoods, and community members who protested faced violence and intimidation. Benefits promised by EPO to the community,...

CDC Group: financing Feronia for palm oil (DRC)

An estimated 100,000 people live on or within five kilometres of three oil palm plantations, Boteka, Lokutu, and Yaligimba, operated by PHC in northern Congo. Local communities claim that part of the plantations sit on land that was taken from them by the Belgian colonial administration. Land rights defenders and members of the Yalifombo community...

Uyghur forced labour in murky value chains – the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (China)

The risk of forced labour in the value chains of cotton products from apparel to home furnishings exists at all production stages, from cotton picking to final manufacturing processes: it is estimated that one in five cotton garments on the global marketplace is connected to forced labour of Uyghur workers at some stage of its...

JCB: due diligence in the illegally Occupied Territories (Palestine)

Israel’s policy of appropriating land and establishing Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) has led to the destruction of Palestinian homes, agricultural land and other property for over 50 years. Israel’s building of Israeli settlements and transfer of parts of its civilian population into the OPT is illegal under international law and a...

Civil Society Statement – UK Engagement on a UN Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights

Ten years on from the introduction of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), voluntary initiatives have failed to have a meaningful impact on tackling abuse in business operations and supply chains. This includes modern slavery, unsafe working conditions, attacks on human rights defenders including trade unions, pollution of land and water,...

The Samarco dam disaster: BHP’s failure to take sufficient action (Brazil)

Communities living along the River Doce have been severely impacted by the Samarco dam disaster. More than 700,000 victims, including representatives of Krenak Indigenous communities are taking their case against BHP to the UK courts in the largest group claim in English legal history.

Leicester’s sweat shops: abuses in Boohoo’s value chains (UK)

When the Sunday Times published an investigation alleging labour exploitation, deplorable working conditions, and illegally low rates of pay – as low as £3.50 an hour – in Leicester-based factories making clothes for Boohoo, it shocked the UK. Find out how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.