Business & Human Rights

Minerals Rule Imposes "Significant Burden" on EU Companies

April 05, 2017

A Squire Patton Boggs analysis of a proposed EU regulation governing the import of "conflict minerals" from war-torn areas of Africa recently adopted by the European Parliament highlights how the rule would impose a "significant burden" on companies that must comply with its "due diligence" and reporting requirements.
NGO Seeks Tough Sanctions Under "Due Diligence" Laws

April 05, 2017

Jeffrey Vogt of the Solidarity Center writes that countries like Australia considering the adoption of a version of the UK Modern Slavery Act, which requires corporate reporting on efforts to rid their supply chains of forced labor, must close "loopholes" in the legislation by providing for "mandatory human rights due diligence" with "dissuasive sanctions" in case a breach occurs.
Paper Examines "Collaborative" BHR Impact Assessments

April 05, 2017

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Danish Institute for Human Rights, and Sciences Po Law School Clinic outline how businesses and NGOs could pursue a "collaborative" approach to "human rights impact assessments" to consider how best to implement the global business and human rights (BHR) agenda in corporate projects.
UN Group Seeks Spread of BHR "Due Diligence" Laws

April 05, 2017

The UN Working Group on business and human rights (BHR) issues has released a statement welcoming a new French law requiring companies to show they are performing "due diligence" to identify and address human rights impacts in their operations and supply chains and calling on other governments to follow France's lead in broadly implementing the BHR agenda.
Workshop Pushes for Strong CoE Guidelines on BHR

April 05, 2017

A recent workshop hosted by the Danish Institute for Human Rights gathered representatives from governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), businesses, and other institutions to generate proposals for a wide-ranging business and human rights (BHR) recommendation at a high-level seminar to be hosted by the Council of Europe (CoE) in June.