Corporate Accountability – Page 4 – Human Rights Insights

Summary of the consultations on the UN draft treaty on business & human rights (day 1)

On October 26, 2020, the Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations (OEIGWG) begun its 6th session which will take place until October 30, 2020 to discuss the second revised UN draft treaty on business and human rights.

On the first day, stakeholders presented their general statements on the draft treaty and amendments to the preamble, Articles 1 and 2.

First draft on EU mandatory human rights due diligence out

See update on the EU Parliament draft Directive adopted on March 10, 2021.

On September 2020, the EU Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs published a draft report containing a text of proposed Directive on mandatory human rights due diligence and recommendations to the EU Commission.

According to an EU Commission study, currently, only 37% of business respondents conduct environmental and human rights due diligence and only 16% cover the entire supply chain.

Trump administration against corporate liability for human rights violations under Alien Tort Statute

On May 26, 2020, the Trump administration filed a brief amicus curiae in the Cargill Inc. v John Doe case, urging the Supreme Court to hold that domestic corporations cannot be liable for human rights violations under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS).

In this case, former child slaves who were forced to work on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast claim that Nestle US and Cargill aided and abetted slave labour by providing financial support and technical farming aid to famers, subjecting defendants to suit under the ATS.

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.