The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill is due to reach its 3rd reading in the House of Lords next week. As it stands the Bill will give irresponsible multi-national corporations which choose to cut corners more power to violate with impunity the rights of poor and vulnerable communities in developing countries. CORE is calling for the Bill to be amended to safeguard access to justice for victims of corporate human rights abuses. Read the briefing here (PDF)
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Simply Put provides an expert analysis of how the current legal framework is failing and what changes need to be made to the existing social and environmental corporate reporting regime. Through smart and straightforward amendments, the report identifies how existing legal requirements could be simplified and streamlined to take the guesswork out of corporate compliance.
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The UK government has recently proposed wide-ranging reforms to the costs regime for civil litigation following a review by Lord Jackson. The so-called Jackson reforms will significantly restrict the ability of claimants and their lawyers to recover legal costs from defendants. They will have particularly devastating consequences for human rights claims against multinational corporations (MNCs), as they threaten to make such claims economically unviable. This briefing note explains why.
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CORE outlines ten of the key issues, opportunities and discussion points on UK business, human rights and the environment over the coming year. The article is based on the premise that there is no single silver bullet to improving UK businesses’ human rights and environmental impacts, so a multi-faceted approach is required.
(April 2011)
A Starter for Ten
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CORE is proposing a new body to address the human rights and environmental impacts of UK companies when operating abroad. Based on a detailed review of possible reforms for existing mechanisms, CORE proposes that the Government should create a specialised Commission for Business, Human Rights and the Environment that would have coordinating, capacity-building and informational roles, while also operating as a dispute resolution body.
This briefing for advocates and activists is available for free download and hard copies of the publication are also available free on request.
CORE Values
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Leigh Day & Co is the only law firm in the UK which represent overseas claimants in holding Multi National Corporations (MNCs) to account for human rights violations in developing countries. In this article, Richard Meeran, Partner at Leigh Day & Co, provides an overview of litigation outside the US, together with case examples.
Meeran argues that these cases enable victims to access compensation and provide a deterrent against corporate wrongdoing. However, few claimants’ lawyers have been willing to take on cases against MNCs in their home states, due to misperceptions of risk and the level of resources and experience required. Worse still, if recent UK Government proposals to reform the civil costs system are made law, this will provide a powerful deterrent against claimants’ lawyers undertaking these cases.
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In this report, SCIAF demonstrate the limitations of voluntary CSR initiatives. A case study is presented of human rights violations caused by the operations of a company that works above and beyond the legal minimum CSR standards.
SCIAF call on the UK government to implement the proposed UK Commission for Business Human Rights and the Environment.
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Over the last six years, developments in UK law on company non-financial reporting requirements have proven particularly challenging to follow. CORE has produced this timeline which attempts to provide an accessible summary of recent changes and current debates across Whitehall and the EU.
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18 March 2011
This report examines the impact of The Companies Act (2006) on directors’ duties. The report finds that contrary to much of the legal commentary around the time the legislation was enacted, the legal ramifications of the new provisions relating to human rights and environmental issues, have been vastly overstated.
The report focuses on the impact of the new provision, s.172, which specifies directors should have regard to environmental and social issues in their decision making.
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A briefing paper prepared for the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative on Business and Human Rights. This paper outlines how state-based non-judicial mechanisms can help fill gaps in existing frameworks for the protection of human rights of people affected by corporate activities.
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