Business & Human Rights

Dutch Insurers Sign “Social Responsibility” Agreement

July 26, 2018

As part of a broad initiative to bind Dutch industries to global social and environmental standards, a group of Dutch insurers has signed an agreement with nongovernmental organizations, the Dutch government, and others to engage in “socially responsible investing” and to avoid financing negative impacts to the environment.
Google Accounts for Human Rights Agenda in AI Principles

July 25, 2018

Under pressure from an activist community increasingly calling for a human rights focus in the development of artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies, tech giant Google has developed a set of AI principles restricting the use of this technology to contravene “widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.”
UNHRC Requests Guidance for National Institutions on BHR Remedies

July 25, 2018

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has adopted a resolution calling on the UN Working Group on business and human rights (BHR) issues to study how national human rights institutions can facilitate access to remedy for alleged victims of corporate abuses of the BHR agenda.
Academics Call for Global Human Rights Regime for AI

July 25, 2018

Christiaan van Veen of NYU Law and Corinne Cath of Oxford argue that human rights must be a key focus in the development of artificial-intelligence (AI) technologies and businesses engaged in AI must subject themselves to “public and external accountability mechanisms of the international human rights regime.”
NGOs Push Banks to Create BHR Grievance Mechanisms

July 25, 2018

The nongovernmental organizations BankTrack and Oxfam Australia have released global guidelines for banks on how to develop grievance mechanisms to deal with complaints that they are “financing projects that adversely impact vulnerable people” in contravention of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (BHR).