Business & human rights – Page 4 – Human Rights Insights

Towards EU mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence for business

On April 29, 2020, Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders announced that the European Commission will, in 2021, introduce a legislative initiative on due diligence for companies.

Investors’ call to enforce mandatory human rights due diligence

On April 21, 2020, a group of 101 international investors representing US$5 trillion in assets under management have, in a common statement, called on “all governments to develop, implement, and enforce mandatory human rights due diligence requirements for companies headquartered or operating within their own jurisdictions”.

Landmark ruling: Canadian corporations may be held liable for breaches of international human rights law says the Supreme Court!

On February 28, 2020, the Canadian Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in the Araya v. Nevsun Resources Ltd case, dismissing Nevsun’s motion to strike, considering that “it is not plain and obvious that corporations today enjoy a blanket exclusion under customary international law from direct liability for violations of obligatory, definable, and universal norms of international law”.

Landmark settlement: ANZ bank compensating displaced Cambodian farmers by a client’s project it financed

The settlement reached in February 2020 by Equitable Cambodia and Inclusive Development International on behalf of Cambodian victims and ANZ bank, under the auspices of the Australian National Contact Point (AusNCP) is the first of its kind for the global banking industry.

In a joint statement published on 27 February 2020, “ANZ recognises the continuing hardships faced by the affected communities, and has agreed to pay the profit it earned from the loan, to the affected communities”.

Companies calling for EU regulation on due diligence on business and human rights !

On December 2, 2019, some of the world’s largest chocolate companies called the European Union (EU) to adopt a regulation placing a due diligence obligation on all companies importing cocoa or cocoa products on the European market.