UN-BHR

Ruggie Urges Focus on UNGPs to Achieve "Sustainability"

November 30, 2016

In remarks to the annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, Harvard Professor John Ruggie urged businesses to focus on fulfilling the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), including by putting pressure on their supply chains, in order to contribute to the UN's comprehensive Sustainable Development Goals.
NGO Seeks New World Order in BHR Treaty

November 29, 2016

The nongovernmental organization Share the World's Resources has published an article lauding the potential of negotiations in Geneva over the development of a binding UN business and human rights treaty to bring about "a new international political, economic and legal order" by dismantling international trade deals and providing for the global regulation of corporate activities.
Rights Activists Call for Rejection of Trade Deals

November 29, 2016

A set of nongovernmental organizations have issued a statement calling for the rejection of various international trade agreements for failing to integrate the global human rights agenda, including economic and social rights, into their provisions and seeking the completion of "human rights impact assessments" prior to the adoption of any future trade deal.
IHRB Calls for BHR Due Diligence in Data Use

November 11, 2016

The Institute for Human Rights and Business has published a report calling on businesses using consumer data to market their products and services to perform due diligence under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to ensure that the source of the data did not violate anyone's human rights in obtaining it.
BHR Treaty Group Targets 2017 Talks on Final Content

November 11, 2016

In its report of the final day of the second negotiating session for a binding UN business and human rights (BHR) treaty, the European Coalition for Corporate Justice relates that the Working Group charged with developing the treaty held a discussion on mandatory remedies for BHR violations and targeted 2017 for talks on the final content of the treaty.
UN Agent Intervenes in CETA Debate

November 07, 2016

Arguing that the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a "corporate-driven" treaty whose inclusion of an investment tribunal violates human rights, UN Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas has called for a robust UN business and human rights treaty to counter the power of businesses to challenge regulations under treaties like CETA.
Scotland Releases National BHR Assessment

November 07, 2016

As part of its development of a Scottish National Action Plan for Human Rights, the Scottish Human Rights Commission has developed, with two nongovernmental organizations, a National Baseline Assessment on Business and Human Rights (BHR) to determine where the country currently stands on implementing the BHR agenda.
NGOs Use Environmental Precedent for BHR Treaty

November 07, 2016

A coalition of nongovernmental organizations called CIVICUS has called on negotiators of a binding treaty on business and human rights (BHR) issues to use the Aarhus Convention, an instrument requiring countries to offer procedural rights on environmental matters, as a model for a BHR treaty that recognizes citizens' "right to information" on corporate human rights impacts.
Paper Dismisses Duty of Extraterritorial BHR Regulation

November 04, 2016

Claire Methven O’Brien writes in favor of the position of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, but spurned by BHR advocates pushing for states to do more to punish multinational corporations for foreign human rights violations, that governments have no international human rights obligation to prevent BHR abuses committed abroad.
NGO Praises Talks on "Ambitious" BHR Treaty

November 02, 2016

In a press release, Friends of the Earth International has lauded last week's "ambitious and far-reaching negotiation" in Geneva over a binding UN treaty that would require countries to implement the global business and human rights agenda, and praised rules that restricted business participation in the process due to "conflicts of interest."