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Dutch Food Industry Agrees to Supply-Chain Standards
July 23, 2018
Dutch government officials, businesses in the food sector, and nongovernmental organizations have signed an International Responsible Business Conduct (IRBC) Agreement setting out standards for Dutch food supply chains to comply with global environmental and human rights standards - the sixth such IRBC deal concluded across the country’s industries.
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Scholars Seek Rights Standards as Basis for ESG Investing
July 23, 2018
Professor John Ruggie and Emily Middleton of the Harvard Kennedy School have published a paper calling for international human rights standards to serve as the basis for the “social” pillar of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment principles to encourage “social performance” in business.
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NGO Calls on Facebook to Set up Data-Processing Audit
July 23, 2018
The nongovernmental organization Access Now has released an open letter calling on Facebook to submit to an independent audit of its data-processing practices and agreements on data disclosure, to perform a global human rights impact assessment, and to promote “comprehensive data protection” regulations.
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Businesses Seek UN Approval for Climate Plans
July 18, 2018
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change reports that over 114 companies around the world have submitted their action plans to combat global warming to the UN for approval under the Science Based Targets initiative, aimed at pressuring corporations to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions in line with the UN’s Paris climate accord.
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Business Group Launches Labor Guidelines for Engineering, Construction
July 16, 2018
A coalition of companies called Building Responsibly has published a set of Worker Welfare Principles, developed in consultation with “civil society stakeholders,” to establish a global “baseline” for labor rights in the engineering and construction industries aligned with international human rights standards.