Opinion on the UK Law Commission’s options paper including a criminal offence of failure to prevent human rights abuses

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.

Efforts by the UK advocacy organisations Transform Trade and the UK network, Corporate Justice Coalition (CJC), have recently borne fruit, with their proposals being acknowledged and discussed in the recently launched UK Law Commission’s Options Paper on Corporate Criminal Liability.