Doing Business Right Blog

Editor’s note: Shamistha Selvaratnam is a LLM Candidate of the Advanced Masters of European and International Human Rights Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands and an intern with the Doing Business Right project. Prior to commencing the LLM, she worked as a business and human rights solicitor in Australia where she specialised in promoting business respect for human rights through engagement with policy, law and practice.

Introduction

This report compiles all relevant news, events and materials on Doing Business Right based on the coverage provided on our twitter feed @DoinBizRight and on various websites. You are invited to contribute to this compilation via the comments section below, feel free to add links to important cases, documents and articles we may have overlooked.

The Headlines

CHRB

On 12 November 2018, the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark released the results of its 2018 ranking of 101 companies operating in the apparel, agricultural products and extractives industries. The results show that implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in these sectors is still weak (following the 2017 results) with the average overall score for 2018 being 27% (an increase of 9 percentage points from last year), demonstrating a lack of respect for human rights. The Report identifies that due diligence is a key weakness of the companies that were reviewed, with 40% of companies scoring no points with respect to the due diligence indicator. Other issues identified were the lack of a strong commitment to ensuring that there are ‘living wages’ paid to those working in company operations and supply chains and the failure to meet expectations with respect to preventing child labour in supply chains. Read the 2018 Key Findings Report here.

Australian MSA passes both houses of Parliament

On 29 November 2018, the Modern Slavery Bill 2018 (Cth) passed both houses of the Australian Parliament. Once enacted, the Act will require Australian entities and entities carrying on a business in Australia that have a consolidated revenue of at least $100 million to prepare a Modern Slavery Statement covering mandatory criteria. Criteria that such entities will have to report on include the risks of modern slavery practices in their operations and supply chains and the actions they take to assess and address those risks, including due diligence and remediation processes. It is likely that the Act will come into effect on 1 January 2019 and accordingly the first Modern Slavery Statements will be due by 1 January 2021.

UN and International organisations publications and statements

• FIFA, Second Report by the FIFA Human Rights Advisory Board: Including the Board’s Recommendations and FIFA’s Responses
• UN Human Rights Special Procedures – Summary of the report of the Working Group on Business and Human Rights to the General Assembly, October 2018 (A/73/163): Corporate human rights due diligence: emerging practices, challenges and ways forward

NGO and Law Firm publications and statements

• Business & Human Rights Resource Centre – FTSE 100 & the UK Modern Slavery Act: From Disclosure to Action
• Danish Institute of Human Rights – Women in Business and Human Rights
• European Coalition of Justice – Parliamentarians from across Europe want to move on human rights due diligence legislation

In Court

• Amnesty International – South Africa: Ruling against mining company a victory for marginalized communities across the country
• Courthouse News Service – Climate Change Litigation Turns Up the Heat on Corporations
• Independent – North Korean labourer sues European company for ‘profiting from his slavery’
• Mali & Guardian – High Court rules in favour of Xolobeni community in historic mining rights case
• Namati – Court Orders Oil Palm Company to Return Land and Pay Arrears of Rent to Landowners in Sierra Leone
• Reuters – In Ecuador, landmark court cases challenge mining projects

In the News 

• Africa Focus – Africa Mining Vision
• Business Insider UK – They treat us like disposable parts': An Amazon warehouse worker is waging war on working conditions in a new anonymous newspaper column
• Climate Liability News – French Communities Demand Climate Action by Oil Giant Total
• Facebook Newsroom – An Independent Assessment of the Human Rights Impact of Facebook in Myanmar
• Global Legal Action Network – Complaint filed against Irish oil company for business dealings in annexed Western Sahara
• Global Witness – What the EU is doing to make our money more ethical and why you should care
• Human Rights Watch – Airbnb Stops Rentals on Stolen Land: Daily Brief
• John Ruggie – Facebook in the Rest of the World
• Mining Technology – Diamond Industry Urged to Improve Human Rights Record
• MotherJones – Your Halloween Candy’s Hidden Ingredient: Child Slave Labor
• OZY – Tanzanian Farmers Crack the Code for Fighting Land Grab
• Place – Hi-tech mapping threatens land rights across the 'digital divide' - experts
• Reuters – UK's Tetley reveals tea suppliers in push for slave-free sourcing
• Rights and Accountability in Development – Barrick and Randgold Warned About Rights Abuses Ahead of Merger
• Rights and Accountability in Development – Glencore’s Growing Legal Troubles With Katanga Mining
• The Guardian – Bangladesh to eject safety inspectors brought in after Rana Plaza disaster
• Thomson Reuters Foundation – Most big companies failing U.N. human rights test, ranking shows

Speeches, Videos, Podcasts and Interviews

• Debbie Stothard at EU Parliament DROI Committee Meeting
• Letícia Oliveira, 'It's a long fight': the communities devastated by Brazil's dam collapse

Academic Materials

• Carolijn Terwindt, Shaelyn Morrison and Christian Schliemann, Health Rights Impacts by Agrochemical Business: Legally Challenging the “Myth of Safe Use”, Utrecht Journal of International and European Law
• Claire Methven O'Brien, Experimentalist Global Governance and the case for a Framework Convention based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (in book: Experimentalist Global Governance and the case for a Framework Convention based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights)
• Geetanjali Ganguly, Joana Setzer and Veerle Heyvaert, If at First You Don’t Succeed: Suing Corporations for Climate Change, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies

Blogs           

Asser Institute Doing Business Right Blog

• Alexandru Tofan – Transnational Access to Justice in Araya v Nevsun: Overcoming Procedural Barriers to Remedy in Business and Human Rights Cases
• Imke B.L.H. van Gardingen – Accountability for the exploitation of North Korean workers in the Shipbuilding Industry through Dutch Criminal Law
• Shamistha Selvaratnam – Global Modern Slavery Developments (Part I): A Critical Review of the UK Modern Slavery Act

Others

• Clare Patton, Ciara Hackett and Ciarán O'Kelly – Rang Tan, Iceland and Greenpeace: How a cartoon orangutan opened up the debate on the politics of charity advertising
• Emily Kenway – Globalising justice in supply chains: extraterritorial responsibility
• Gabriela Kletzel, Andrés López Cabello and Daniel Cerqueira – A Toothless Tool? First impressions on the Draft Optional Protocol to the Legally Binding Instrument on Business and Human Rights
• Katerina Yiannibas – International Arbitration & the Remedy Gap for Victims of Business-Related Human Rights Abuses
• Klentiana Mahmutaj – Observations on the Zero Draft - A Detailed Proposal for a System of Arbitration
• Louise Eldridge – Hope for reform, and remedy? External reviewers visit the UK NCP
• Louise Eldridge – Mandatory human rights due diligence is the direction of travel
• Marieke Louis – The Social Diplomacy of Multinational Corporations
• Michael A. Santoro and Robert Shanklin – Business Responsibility for Freedom of Expression: Should Google Re-Enter the China Internet Search Market?
• Miriam Ingeson and Alexandra Lily Kather – The Road Less Traveled: How Corporate Directors Could be Held Individually Liable in Sweden for Corporate Atrocity Crimes Abroad
• Phil Bloomer – New human rights ranking shows most firms have barely left the starting line
• Priya Pillai – Human rights impact assessment in Myanmar: Facebook’s anodyne report
• Rama Dwivedi – ‘Giving Up Not an Option’: These Women Farmers are Fighting for Social Acceptance, Rights
• Tara Van Ho – Academics, Women Academics and the 2018 #bizhumanrights Forum: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3
• Tareq Shrourou – Airbnb settlements disengagement decision shows the way forward for companies in the emerging context of business and human rights compliance
• Virginie Rouas – Access to justice and the new French Act on the duty of care: main opportunities and challenges for plaintiffs

Call for Papers and Abstracts

• Call for Papers – Innovate Rights: New Thinking on Business and Human Rights –University of New South Wales (due 18 January 2019)

• Call for Blogs –Business and Human Rights Journal Blog – Cambridge University

Upcoming Events

• 6 December 2018 – The History and Future of the Business and Human Rights Movement – Oxford University, England
• 28 January – 1 February 2019 – Doing Business Right Winter Academy - The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: From theory to practice – Asser Institute, The Hague
• 13-14 February 2019 – 2019 OECD Forum on Due Diligence Guidance in the Garment and Footwear Sector – Paris
• 11-12 April 2019 – Business & Human Rights Young Researchers Summit – St. Gallen, Switzerland