A new Peace Brigades International (PBI) UK investigation shows links between UK companies, environmental devastation and attacks on rights activists calling for law to ensure effective due diligence.

The Modern Slavery Act Committee summarises that international best practice has moved beyond requiring transparency to requiring companies to perform due diligence on their supply chains, and take action to eradicate modern slavery in their supply chains.

The report assesses the corporate implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in Northern Ireland. It finds that none of NI's top 20 companies could demonstrate full engagement with the basic expectations set out by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The highest score was 54%. 

Lola Young's Private Members Bill has it's second reading in the House of Lords. Anti-Slavery International explains why such ground-breaking legislation is urgently needed in the UK. 

YouGov polling from April 2024 shows that more than 80% of British adults want new UK laws requiring British companies to prevent human rights abuses and environmental damage in their supply chain, and 73% think UK companies should be doing more to reduce their contribution to global warming.

The statement calls for a new law that ensures accountability when businesses cause or contribute to harms. It calls for the law to hold businesses legally liable for harm, loss and damage arising from their failure to prevent adverse human rights and environmental impacts within their operations and throughout their global value chains and to require them to adequately compensate victims of abuse.

In the Parliamentary session 2023-2024, Baroness Lola Young introduced a Private Members Bill in the House of Lords. The “Commercial Organisations and Public Authorities Duty (Human Rights and Environment) Bill” had its first reading on 28 November 2023 and its second reading on 10 May 2024 before collapsing due to the 2024 election.

This report documents in 15 case studies how well-known UK companies, financial institutions and public bodies have been and continue to be connected to human rights abuses, worker exploitation and environmental harm at home and abroad. Find out how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

On 15 November 2015 the Fundão Dam, a holding structure for waste material from iron ore processing, collapsed and released 45 million cubic metres of waste into the River Doce. This killed 19 people and impacted the human rights of hundreds of thousands of people in surrounding communities including the human rights to life, health, water, food, adequate housing, work and education. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

JCB’s sole dealer in Israel is the Israeli company Comasco which holds contracts with Israel’s Ministry of Defence for the maintenance of the same model of JCB machines used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and property, and the construction of Israeli settlements. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

UK development finance is connected to palm oil plantations in northern Congo. Local communities claim that part of the plantations sit on land that was taken from them by the Belgian colonial administration. Land defenders are facing harassment and intimidation. Workers have been forced to work with toxic chemicals and local sources of drinking water are reportedly contaminated by industrial waste from the plantation. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Communities in Liberia claim that UK agri-business EPO’s oil palm plantations have encroached on their land, which was illegally cleared for plantation, and that activities went ahead without their consent. As a result, they have lost their livelihoods, and community members who protested faced violence and intimidation. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

BHP Group, Anglo American and Glencore were the joint owners of the Cerrejón coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia. The mining operations have led to the dispossession and displacement of 35 Wayúu Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities from their ancestral land, at times by brutal police evictions. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Research has shown that dozens of international brands, including UK companies Marks & Spencer, Primark, River Island and Tesco are at risk of using cotton that is produced or processed by Uyghur forced labour. Companies have called for stronger laws, and a number of companies, including Marks & Spencer, have signed a “call to action” to remove their value chains from the region.

50 businesses, including the British Retail Consortium, Tesco and Unilever, call on the UK government to urgently bring forward ambitious primary legislation to mandate companies to carry out human rights and environmental due diligence. 

At the end of May, CJC joined the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Rights to host the event “Levelling the playing field for UK companies: Mandatory supply chain due diligence to protect human rights and the environment” in Parliament.

When the Sunday Times published an investigation alleging labour exploitation, deplorable working conditions, and illegally low rates of pay – as low as £3.50 an hour – in Leicester-based factories making clothes for Boohoo, it shocked the UK. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

For decades, the Kabwe mine was operated without adequate environmental safeguards, leading to lead contamination of the soil. Medical studies conducted over the past 45 years have shown extreme levels of lead in young children which has affected generations with lead encephalopathy and fatal lead poisoning. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Surveillance technologies such as FinFisher have been used as a means to exercise political control and to spy on activists, human rights defenders, journalists and dissidents to stifle political opposition and undermine democratic development. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Workers in Mae Sot face a weak rule of law, substandard wages and labour conditions, as well as employers denying workers the rights to join unions and exercise their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

The Kurya or Kuria people are the majority ethnic group of Tarime district. The mine severely impacted their way of life and they suffer from brutal violence. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Indigenous communities in the Amazon are continuously battling for land ownership and land use rights. Workers at cattle ranches were forced to work 17 hours a day and were left to live in deplorable conditions. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Malawi is one of the top five tobacco leaf-producing countries in Africa. Farmers often work under exploitative and hazardous conditions. In certain tobacco producing regions, 57% of children are engaged in child labour on tobacco farms. Find out in our case study how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Over a number of decades, oil spills from Shell’s operations led to devastating environmental impacts with disastrous consequences for the local residents. The spills contaminated the communities’ land and waterways which they relied on for farming, drinking, and washing. Find out more details in our case study and how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Despite serious red flags concerning Supermax’s labour practices and ongoing investigations, NHS Supply Chain named Supermax an approved supplier in December 2021. The US Government had previously introduced import bans on Supermax products based on its finding of forced labour. Find out how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference.

Investors representing £4.5 trillion in assets under management support a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act and make recommendations to the UK for robust legislation on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence

Yaeno Fernandez Amano, Fellow at Anti-Slavery International, explores the latest polling results regarding modern slavery and supply chains.

Opinion: The failure to hold to account criminally UK companies (and companies which operate in the UK and/or have UK listings) which are complicit in human rights abuses abroad stands in stark contrast to more promising developments in countries such as France, with the Lafarge case, and Sweden with the Lundin case.

Policy briefing analysing the evidence base on the effectiveness of mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence.

Under Schedule 17 of the UK Environment Act, certain businesses will be required to prove that their products are “deforestation-free” and compliant with local laws, but respect for indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ rights – in particular their land rights - has not been expressly required.