Weekly Update - 2 March 2016

• society’s growing inequality is reflected in the challenges victims face in seeking legal redress for business-related human rights abuse
• lawyers are collaborating to develop new strategies beyond lawsuits to improve access to remedy 
• major projects by UN & intl. groups offer prospect of some ways forward to address accountability gaps

(Photo credit: Pierre-Louis Ferré) 

UN Global Compact and Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

• 75 statements made so far

Leigh Day

Gay Star Business

Access to Seeds Foundation; Guardian (UK)

• DuPont Pioneer leads among field crop seed firms
• East-West Seed leads among vegetable seed firms & on Regional Index for Eastern Africa 

Measuring Business & Human Rights and Oxfam America, on Huffington Post 

Sud Quotidien (Senegal)

• we invited Teranga Gold to respond; response provided

Intl. Work Group for Indigenous Affairs

• we invited Lake Turkana Wind Power & KenGen to respond:
  • response by Lake Turkana Wind Power provided
  • KenGen did not respond

SABC News

BBC

Guardian (UK)

Guardian (UK); Undercurrent News

• EU “yellow card” could lead to ban on Thai seafood imports

• banks assessed: Bank of China, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Intesa Sanpaolo, JPMorgan Chase, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Mitsui Financial, Mizuho Financial, Morgan Stanley, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo, UBS
• we invited IOI Corp. to respond; response provided

Guardian (UK)

• we invited KBZ Bank to respond; response provided

China Labour Bulletin; China Labor Watch

• 1 activist, Zhu Xhaomei, released after 2 months' detention
• we invited Calvin Klein/PVH, Li & Fung, Wolverine to respond:
  • Calvin Klein/PVH responded
  • Li & Fung, Wolverine did not respond

Agence France-Presse

Oil-Workers’ Rights Protection Organization (OWRPO)

• accident left 12 dead, 19 missing & 32 injured
• we invited SOCAR to respond; response provided

Bloomberg Business

• article also available in Russian

Plataforma Salvemos Cabana

• we invited Hugo Boss to respond; response provided

Western Sahara Resource Watch

Today’s Zaman

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Githu Muigai, Attorney General of Kenya; Danish Institute for Human Rights

• Danish Institute for Human Rights & Kenya Human Rights Commission to play key role in developing NAP

• share & learn lunch: how companies can work against corruption (9 Mar, Zurich)
• webinar on traceability solutions for the apparel sector (9 & 10 Mar, online)
• responsible recruitment of migrant workers (10 Mar, online)
• launch: OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains (11 Mar, Paris)
• legal responses & remedies to trans-boundary pollution (15 Mar, Singapore)

• Centre for Environmental Rights (Researcher)
• Green Century Capital Management (Shareholder Advocacy Associate)
• Impactt Limited (Project Manager, China Office)
• RepRisk (Analyst, Nordic Languages)
• Tri-State Coalition for Responsible Investment (Program Associate)