Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

With our partners and allies worldwide, we seek to put human rights at the heart of business to deliver shared prosperity, climate justice and end abuse.   Our new strategic plan equips us to do just that, as our Executive Director Phil Bloomer and Director of Regional Programmes Betty Yolanda explain:

The energy transition was a hot topic at last week's IX UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. Miguel Lévano Muñoz from Oxfam en Perú offers essential considerations for a just transition from Peru, where an estimated 30% of the population are exposed to heavy metals linked to mining activity. As Miguel explains, women are particularly affected by health impacts linked to mining, and experience different impacts while caring for their families. Read Oxfam Peru's recent report to find out more about women's rights and the #JustTransition in Peru (ES): https://lnkd.in/e89FG9bR  🔉 ES

This week in #BizHumanRights… Report reveals Clearview AI’s facial recognition tech allegedly designed for surveillance of marginalised groups Luxury brand Richemont sues union officials for defamation following migrant worker protests USA bans imports from South Korea’s largest salt farm over forced labour claims For more #BizHumanRights developments including allegations of corporate abuse, ground-breaking research and examples of good practice, read & subscribe to our Weekly Update newsletter👇

Opaque supply chains are just one of the barriers to corporate accountability faced by agricultural workers seeking justice for labour rights abuse. We spoke to Jorge Ferreira dos Santos from the Organisation of Rural Employees in the State of Minas Gerais (ADERE-MG) at last week's IX UN Forum on #BizHumanRights in Latin America and the Caribbean, who explained how transparency is a crucial first step to tackling forced labour in coffee supply chains. 🔉 Listen in PT 🇧🇷

"Where conflict looms, it is even more critical for companies & employers to adopt a heightened human rights due diligence approach to labour procurement, including facilitating return journeys for migrant workers." Sarah Lince from Verité on hidden risks for migrant workers in conflict ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eGjxwvNM

The first thematic consultations on the #BindingTreaty kick off today in Geneva, with a focus on Article 4 (Rights of victims), Article 5 (Protection of victims) and Article 7 (Access to remedy). What's needed for a binding treaty that ensures justice and accountability for millions of workers in global supply chains? Ruwan Subasinghe, Legal Director, International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), Jeff Vogt, Rule of Law Director, Solidarity Center; and Paapa Danquah, Legal Director, International Trade Union Confederation - ITUC explain in our latest blog.

"The setbacks anticipated in the European Union due to the omnibus regulation – which seeks to simplify the recently approved binding regulatory framework – may have serious repercussions on compliance with international standards in our countries." "Weakening frameworks such as #CSDDD... would have a direct impact on communities in the Global South who have already started to use these legal tools in European courts to demand justice against transnational corporations." The shifting regulatory landscape around the world was high on the agenda at last week's IX Regional UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. Twenty-six members of the Civil Society Platform on #BizHumanRights in the region highlighted the potential risk of the EU #omnibus to workers and communities in the Global South in their call for "a new paradigm of growth and development that puts respect for and compliance with human and environmental rights first".

The Binding Treaty is in focus today in São Paulo at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean. In our latest blog, Melisanda Trentin from Justiça Global and Manoela Roland from Homa - Human Rights and Business Centre explain Brazil's position in the last session of negotiations and the obstacles and opportunities for the intersessional thematic consultations and beyond.

"We were told that work in the field was just any old job. Evidently, we have seen it is a profession. Agricultural workers deserve decent work, a decent salary, and access to justice." - Abelina Ramírez Ruiz from the National Independent Democratic Union of Agricultural Workers (SINDJA), Mexico Today at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean we heard from civil society, companies, the public sector, UN experts, and workers, communities and Indigenous Peoples affected by corporate abuse, on some of the most pressing issues in the region - from the #JustTransition and the implementation of the Escazú agreement to due diligence frameworks and agricultural sector abuse. Our joint session with Proyecto Periplo and Fundación Avina sought to establish collaborative solutions to put human rights due diligence into practice in agricultural supply chains. Find out more about some of the abuses faced by workers in Mexico's agricultural supply chains in our new report - link in comments. #bizhumanrights

The agroindustry in Chiapas, Mexico’s most southerly state, employs thousands of workers, including migrants from Central America and Indigenous Peoples, in the production of coffee, cocoa and sugarcane supplied to major companies all over the world.    Agricultural workers cultivating, picking and packing these crops in Chiapas face harsh working conditions and various forms of abuse within a highly informal sector.     Our new report includes...  ☕️  Evidence of salient human rights risks faced by migrant workers in Chiapas’ agricultural sector – including forced labour, harassment, violence and lack of access to healthcare.    ☕ Mapping of the key corporate players in the exportation coffee, cocoa and sugarcane produced in Chiapas, based on research carried out in collaboration with Empower, LLC.   ☕ Assessment of key companies' publicly available human rights due diligence policies, highlighting a huge gap between public stated policies respecting human rights and action on the ground to stamp out abuses.    This exposes a bitter truth: a few powerful companies are dominating the agricultural export sector in Chiapas and while some of them – particularly in the coffee and cocoa sectors – make public commitments to respect human rights and the environment, a litany of allegations of abuse faced by workers indicates there is a long way to go for companies to implement effective human rights due diligence. The sugarcane sector is even further behind, lacking the disclosure of even the most basic paper commitments to respect human rights.    Oversight of the sector must be urgently improved in order to ensure decent working conditions for migrant agricultural workers, companies’ commitment to a just transition, and greater transparency and accountability from the major companies operating in Chiapas.