NGO Watch®

ICRC Launches Course on SDGs for Humanitarian Groups

January 25, 2019

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched an online course on “Sustainable Development in Humanitarian Action,” aiming to advance the environmental and social objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among humanitarian organizations.
NGO: Companies Must Directly Implement CSR in Operations

January 25, 2019

Reviewing Indian legislation on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the nongovernmental organization Corporate Responsibility Watch warns that CSR, when considered as a complement to rather than an essential component of corporate operations, “will have limited contribution in realising social, environmental and ethical business practices.”
NGO: “Shareholder Supremacy” Threatens Future of Work

January 25, 2019

The nongovernmental organization Oxfam has issued a statement welcoming the International Labour Organization’s publication on necessary government measures to address the “future of work” but warning the proposals fail to tackle companies’ “obsessive fixation on creating profit for shareholders.”
NGO Launches “Data Explorer” Linking SDGs to Human Rights

January 17, 2019

The Danish Institute for Human Rights has launched an algorithm and database called the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-Human Rights Data Explorer linking the comprehensive SDG agenda to the recommendations of UN human rights treaty bodies as part of an attempt by the UN and activists to attach the SDGs to international rights obligations.
NGO: UK Welfare Cuts Undermine Right to “Live Independently”

January 16, 2019

Bethany Brown of Human Rights Watch argues that social care cuts, lack of government oversight, and age discrimination in the UK are undermining the rights of elderly people “to health and to live independently in the community.”
NGO Criticizes Corporate Alliance Against Plastic Waste

January 16, 2019

The Guardian reports that activist group Greenpeace has characterized a newly launched Alliance to End Plastic Waste, created by companies including Procter & Gamble, Shell, and ExxonMobil to fund research on and efforts to reduce plastic pollution, as a “desperate attempt from corporate polluters to maintain the status quo on plastics.”
IKEA Embraces Forest “Sustainability” in NGO Partnership

January 16, 2019

A briefing from the environmental organization WWF describes its partnership with furniture company IKEA to promote “responsible forest management” as a way “to contribute to a sustainable global economy,” as part of the trend among companies to embrace the “sustainability” agenda to avoid criticism by activists.
Report Seeks More Precise Regulation of Corporate Rights Impacts

January 16, 2019

A group of nongovernmental organizations has commissioned a report aggregating research on costs to businesses of failing to implement a human rights “due diligence” regime and calling for “a more precise regulation of corporate responsibility” to prevent negative business impacts on human rights.
NGOs Demand “Civil Rights Ombudsman” at Facebook

January 15, 2019

A group of nongovernmental organizations has published a letter placing responsibility on the leaders of Facebook for “bigotry and hatred towards vulnerable communities” on its platform and calling for the tech giant to appoint “an independent and permanent civil rights ombudsman” to review the impacts of Facebook’s policies.
NGO Accuses Facebook of Rights Violations in Myanmar

January 10, 2019

A pressure group called Burma Campaign UK has listed Facebook among 49 companies it accuses of involvement in human rights violations and environmental degradation in Myanmar, citing the use of the tech giant’s social-media platform to “incite hatred and violence” against minorities in the country.