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Weekly Update - 16 September 2015

Lead Story
Meet the lawyers challenging corporate abuse
  • interviews with leading lawyers from Brazil, Guinea, Indonesia, Dem. Rep. of Congo & Thailand - hear how they help victims & the challenges they face
  • we launch lawyers directory with over 60 lawyers which aims to help victims find legal assistance & aids peer to peer collaboration between lawyers
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From Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
Mary Robinson Speaker Series - Climate justice and business: Human rights from the frontlines to Paris (New York, 23 Sep)
  • speakers include Mary Robinson, General Mills, NAACP, Oxfam, Unilever
New blog series: Business action on climate change & human rights
  • Why not hold food & agriculture companies responsible for climate impacts on farmers in supply chain? - Irit Tamir & Tim Gore, Oxfam 
  • Govts. will be held liable for failing to adequately regulate fossil fuel industry, prevent climate harms - Alyssa Johl, Center for Intl. Environmental Law
  • The Philippines could soon establish liability for major climate change contributors - Zelda dT Soriano, Greenpeace Philippines
International
Bloomberg's editor-in-chief explains how increasing gender balance both in newsroom & editorial coverage has given network a competitive advantage

Women's Feature Service in Weekend Leader (India)


"Am I Being Tracked?": Access report raises privacy concerns over use of "tracking headers", which allow monitoring of web browsing

Access; Medianama

  • we invited the mobile carriers named in the report as using tracking headers to respond
    • responses by AT&T, Telefónica, Verizon, Vodafone provided
    • Bell Canada, Bharti Airtel, Viettel have not yet responded - we will indicate in a future update whether they do or not
UN Special Adviser Amina Mohammed explains why Sustainable Development Goals matter for business

GreenBiz (USA)


"Critical Friends": The dos & don’ts of corporate campaigning, Oxfam-style

Oxfam America's Politics of Poverty blog

Africa
Kenya: Report urges oil companies to improve grievance mechanisms to reduce tensions with local communities in oil-rich Turkana

Cordaid


Investors in Ethiopia's textile industry urged to "carefully tailor" procurement strategies to avoid complicity in human rights abuses

Sourcing Journal (USA)


"Despite the threats, I will not stop fighting for Niger" - Ali Idrissa

Guardian (UK)

  • Ali Idrissa is a human rights defender who campaigns on issues of extractive transparency & natural resources
Americas
USA: Jury awards over USD 17 million in compensation to 5 migrant women who suffered rape & sexual abuse while working at Moreno Farms in Florida 

Reuters

  • however men were never arrested & women are unlikely to receive compensation due to farm closure
Mexico: Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide denounces jailing of indigenous rights defender opposing mining activity of Peña Colorada

Eugene Weekly; Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW)

  • we invited Ternium & AcelorMittal (joint owners of Peña Colorada) to respond - responses provided
  • link to petition calling for Eduardo Arturo Mosqueda Sánchez's release provided
Brazil: Repórter Brasil and InPACTO publish Transparency List of Forced Labour received through access to information law
Asia & Pacific
KiK accused of using "stalling tactics" to avoid paying compensation to victims of Ali Enterprises factory fire in Pakistan 

IndustriALL

  • we invited KiK to respond - response provided
Bangladesh court indicts Tazreen Fashions' factory owners over 2012 fire that resulted in 111 deaths

AFP


Malaysia: Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition launches migrant worker protection project

Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC)


Laos Govt. approves controversial Don Sahong dam; rights groups say it is "ecological time bomb" 

Khmer Times (Cambodia); Phnom Penh Post (Cambodia)


Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) holds consultations on its environmental & social framework, NGOs say process is "grossly inadequate"

NGO Forum on ADB (Philippines)

  • concerns include lack of transparency & fears that 1 month timetable will not enable sufficient input from stakeholders across Asia
Europe & Central Asia
France: Appeals court finds Monsanto responsible for chemical poisoning of farmer, orders company to "fully compensate" him

Reuters


25 investors ask global firms to justify membership of EU trade associations allegedly undermining climate policy

Guardian (UK)

 
UK: Petition calls on govt. to shut arms fair arguing it brings together repressive regimes & arms companies

Independent (UK)

Middle East & North Africa
Turkey: Worker Health and Work Safety Assembly reports 1138 worker deaths so far in 2015

Hürriyet Daily News (Turkey)


2022 World Cup: Qatar Govt. reportedly agrees changes to exploitative kafala system for foreign workers

Arabian Business

  • proposed bill reportedly includes provision regarding switching employer
Suez Canal development in Egypt - reports of worker injuries & deaths

Mada Masr (Egypt); Egyptian Streets

  • we invited companies named as being involved in the project to respond
    • DEME Group, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, and Challenge Consortium on behalf of its member companies (Natl. Marine Dredging Company, Boskalis, Van Oord and Jan de Nul) responded
Company responses Non-responses
Announcements
Corporate Human Rights Benchmark consultation closes 2 Oct Call for papers: Business & human rights PhD workshop (St. Gallen, Switzerland, 31 Mar-1 Apr 2016)
  • deadline for abstracts: 1 Nov
Registration open: Multistakeholder consultation on Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Accountability and Remedy Project (Geneva, 19-20 Nov)
Events
Forthcoming events:
  • one-day courses on the essentials of ethical trade (London, 8 Sep-15 Dec)
  • how business can tackle deforestation (London, 2-3 Nov; early bird tickets end 18 Sep)
  • "Climate Week NYC 2015" (New York, 21-27 Sep)
  • panel on the use of technology to create positive social change (London, 21 Sep)
  • webinar: analysis of US companies' conflict mineral reporting (online, 22 Sep)
  • reducing child-rights related risks in supply chains (Guangzhou, 24-25 Sep)
Details of these and other events further in the future can be found here.  Please send relevant event information to Alex Janczenia: janczenia@business-humanrights.org  
Jobs
Internship positions at Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Other current vacancies: Further details and other recently posted jobs available here.  Please send job announcements to Alex Janczenia: janczenia@business-humanrights.org  
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