“Párroco de Mezapa, Atlántida, es amenazado por acompañar a comunidades que se oponen a construcción de represa hidroeléctrica”, 12 de Abril de 2017
El sacerdote misionero Pedro Antonio Lima y Lima, párroco de la parroquia Santa Rosa Lima en Mezapa, Tela, Atlántida sufre amenazas a muerte por parte de algunos habitantes de las comunidades zona alta del sector que sí apoyan la construcción de la represa hidroeléctrica Centrales de El Progreso “Hidrocep”, propiedad del empresario progreseño Jason Hawit…¿Van a seguir en este acompañamiento?...Creo que nuestro trabajo no se reduce únicamente a estar en la iglesia celebrando sacramentos…no es únicamente pararse a denunciar, no, también hay que hacer presencia física, acompañar a este tipo de personas que sufren….Algunas personas me han dicho padre tenga cuidado cuando suba a la montaña, mejor no vaya, hágase acompañar de unos hermanos, incluso por allí me han dicho padre consígase una 9m o una escuadra (pistolas) para ir a la montaña. Creo que la fe es que nos mueve, no tengo miedo…
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Honduras: Entrevista a sacerdote amenazado por oposición a proyecto hidroeléctrico de Hidrocep
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Event: Human Rights & Finance 20. April Frankfurt
...Die UN Leitprinzipien für Wirtschaft und Menschenrechte aus dem Jahr 2011 geben hier eine erste internationale Orientierung, deren Umsetzung in Deutschland nun durch den im Dezember 2016 verabschiedeten Nationalen Aktionsplan der Bundesregierung vorangebracht werden soll. Ferner müssen größere Unternehmen mit der im März 2017 in Deutschland umgesetzten „CSR-Richtlinie“ ausdrücklich zu den menschenrechtlichen Auswirkungen ihrer Tätigkeiten Bericht erstatten. Einer der einflussreichsten Wirtschaftszweige in diesem Kontext ist die Finanz- und Investmentbranche, deren Unternehmen oft für die negativen menschenrechtlichen Auswirkungen ihrer Tätigkeit öffentlich kritisiert werden. Das immense positive Potential zum Schutz und zur Förderung der Menschenrechte dieser Branche bleibt dabei häufig unbeachtet. Es gibt bereits fortschrittliche Akteure im Finanzbereich, jedoch könnten die Chancen für verantwortungsvolle Unternehmensführung als Erfolgsfaktor in hohem Maße weiter ausgeschöpft werden...
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Report on the Swiss strategy for the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
The present report and the National Action Plan for the Implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (NAP) that it contains have been drawn up in fulfilment of postulate 12.3503 Eine Ruggie-Strategie für die Schweiz ['A Ruggie Strategy for Switzerland']. The document sets out the position and expectations of the Federal Council with regard to the corporate sector, and presents – by means of 50 policy instruments – how Switzerland will implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The objective of the NAP is to improve the protection of human rights in the context of business activities. It also helps to communicate what the Federal Council expects of business enterprises, to raise awareness among and facilitate cooperation with the corporate sector, and also to improve the consistency of government action. The NAP does not create any new and legally binding measures. To monitor implementation, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) and the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) will join with the various stakeholder groups to set up a six-strong multi-stakeholder Monitoring Group. The NAP will be revised in step with Switzerland’s legislative periods.
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France : L'orpaillage illégal en Guyane, principal fléau social, sanitaire et environnemental, selon WWF
« Comment l'orpaillage illégal participe à la crise sociale en Guyane », 13 avril 2017
Trafics d’armes, pollution au mercure, insécurité, prostitution… l’orpaillage illégal, qui n’a jamais été aussi intense en Guyane depuis 2008, contribue au ras-le-bol des Guyanais. Depuis les premières manifestations, fin mars, les populations Amérindiennes et Bushinengué, principalement touchées par l’exploitation illégale de l’or, tentent d’imposer leurs revendications...[Lire la suite : http://www.novethic.fr/empreinte-terre/ressources-naturelles/isr-rse/comment-l-orpaillage-illegal-participe-a-la-crise-sociale-en-guyane-144358.html]
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Report analyses modern slavery statements of 150 companies; incl. description of issues identified through due diligence
"Modern Slavery statements: One year on"
It's a year since companies doing business in the UK were legally required to start making modern slavery statements. This new analysis looks at 150 recent statements to provide a snapshot of what companies are reporting on their actions to combat forced labour and human trafficking, and how this compares to disclosures a year ago.
The report, Modern slavery statements: One Year On includes:- analysis of the sectors, locations and sizes of companies reporting- description of the due dliligence issues covered (policy, risk assessment processes, identified risks, training, performance monitoring)- level of detail they provide- who has signed-off reports and how they have been published.
The analysis is the most up-to-date assessment of how companies are interpreting the reporting obligation and therefore a litmus test for the effectiveness of the legal requirement. It also describes the main ways that companies are seeking to address the challenge of eradicating modern slavery from their businesses and supply chains.
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It’s time to regulate the gig economy
Although it would seem straightforward that the laws protecting workers should also apply to workers in what is described as the ‘gig economy’ or ‘platform-based work’, there is much debate – and confusion – on this issue…Depicting work in the platform economy as a mere ‘sharing of favours’ conveys an image of the gig economy as a sort of parallel dimension, where chores are amateurishly carried out as a form of leisure, with no relation to ‘work’. The reality, however, is different. For most workers, platform-based work is an essential source of income…
Self-regulation by the platforms, as is currently the case, cannot ensure better working conditions…Moreover, unless authorities step in…platforms will continue to have an advantage over traditional industries, risking a deterioration of working conditions that extends beyond platform-based work.
But how to regulate?...The technology that has allowed parcelling and distributing work to ‘the crowd’ can also be used to regulate the work and provide protection to workers…This same technology can thus also be used to ensure that workers earn at least the minimum wage or ideally to regulate the wage agreed collectively by the workers and the platform...
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Bahrain cracks down on Formula One protestors
Security forces in Bahrain have cracked down hard on people protesting the country’s hosting of the Formula One race, which they say serves to distract world attention away from the government’s large-scale rights violations. Protest rallies took place in the Bilad al-Qadeem suburb of the capital, Manama, the western Nuwaidrat Village, as well as on the Sitra Island, likewise situated in the country’s west, on Thursday, according to the Sitra Media network. Security forces were deployed to all protest sites and attacked the demonstrators to break up the rallies, according to the network, which reports on political and human rights activism in Bahrain and the authorities’ treatment of the campaigners. Pictures were also circulated across social media showing protesters burning the race’s tickets. The Bahraini regime is notorious for its lack of tolerance of political opposition and exercising discrimination against the country’s Shia majority.
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How Uber Uses Psychological Tricks to Push Its Drivers’ Buttons
Even as Uber talks up its determination to treat drivers more humanely, it is engaged in an extraordinary behind-the-scenes experiment in behavioral science to manipulate them in the service of its corporate growth…Uber’s innovations reflect the changing ways companies are managing workers amid the rise of the freelance-based “gig economy.” Uber [uses] psychological inducements and other techniques unearthed by social science to influence when, where and how long drivers work…Uber has experimented with video game techniques, graphics and noncash rewards of little value that can prod drivers into working longer and harder — and sometimes at hours and locations that are less lucrative for them…
As long as Uber continues to set growth and passenger volume as critical goals, it will have an incentive to make wringing more hours out of drivers a higher priority …It is, as a result, not too hard to imagine a future in which massive digital platforms like Uber have an appetite for tens of millions of workers…In such an economy, experts say, using big data and algorithms to manage workers will not simply be a niche phenomenon. It may become one of the most common ways of managing the American labor force.
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2 Questions For Journalists At Bahrain’s F1
Bahrain’s government uses events like the F1 to Sportswash its authoritarianism ― this year it invested in a pro cycling team and it now hosts an international ironman triathlon. And there was the bid for the FIFA presidency by the ruling family’s Sheikh Salman, which ended in humiliation after sports journalists exposed his failure to protect athletes targeted during the the 2011 pro-democracy uprising.
But since last year’s Grand Prix in Bahrain the human rights situation there has plummeted dangerously. Executions have resumed this year for the first time since 2010, and two policemen have been killed. Bahraini security forces have killed three men attempting to flee the country, and fatally shot a protestor. Last week the King approved an amendment to the constitution to allow civilians to be tried in military courts. Meanwhile prominent human rights activists remain in prison. News emerged this week that leading dissident Abdulhadi Al Khawaja has embarked on a hunger strike in jail to protest oppressive prison conditions, and that his colleague Nabeel Rajab has been transferred from prison to hospital to prison and back to hospital again following surgery, and denied adequate care. Peaceful political opposition leaders remain in jail.
None of this is the fault of the sports reporters covering this week’s F1, but there a couple of questions they might take a moment to consider:
...If peaceful protestors are targeted in Bahrain in the coming days because it’s the F1 weekend, isn’t that part of the sports story too?
...Should those reporters who get in try to meet the dissidents their colleagues can’t?
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USA: Rejected job applicants file class-action lawsuit against PwC alleging age discrimination
"Older workers challenge PwC’s pursuit of young graduates", 17 April 2017 [Subscription required]
PricewaterhouseCoopers...is now the focus of a class-action suit...The named plaintiffs in the PwC case are two men — one 53 years old and the other 47 — whose applications for entry-level associate positions at the firm were rejected...To “attract and maintain ‘millennials,’ PwC intentionally screens out individuals ages 40 and older... and denies them employment opportunities,” claims their lawsuit...Lawyers for PwC say the plaintiffs’ reading of the law conflicts with Congress’s intent [when passing age discrimination legislation]...[Supreme Court] justices are considering whether to take up a similar class action brought against RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co.[part of Reynolds American], which was sued by a 49-year-old man rejected for a sales position...
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Commentary: California Transparency in Supply Chains Act no longer defence against consumer protection claims against companies
California was the first jurisdiction to introduce transparency compliance requirements to global supply chains. Businesses have sought and succeeded in using their compliance with the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act 2010 to defeat claims under the California Unfair Competition Law, California Consumers Legal Remedies Act and False Advertising Law, on the basis of the safe harbour doctrine. However, the utilisation of the safe harbour doctrine in this manner, appears to be changing. This article explores key case law from 2015-2016, detailing the changing approach by the California judiciary...
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Bahrain: Human rights campaigners urge Formula One Group and sponsors to cancel Grand Prix over government crackdown on opposition
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Using Tools to Advance Transparency in Land Investments
The governance of land has profound impacts for communities, governments, and the private sector. Land governance and use can also have direct impacts on climate change. Yet in practice, information regarding land-use and governance is often not made publicly available—especially in the context of large-scale land investments. Contracts granting large-scale forestry or agricultural concessions are usually negotiated behind closed doors and frequently not publicly disclosed. Similarly, illegal logging and land use is often not detected early enough for public authorities to respond before lasting damage is done.
In accordance with the aims of the Open Government Partnership, greater transparency can help to empower citizens, fight corruption, and ensure that resources are sustainably managed for future generations. In the context of land investments, transparency can also help local communities to influence decision-making, and can play a crucial role in minimizing the adverse impacts of such investments on the human rights and the environment.
This webinar will profile two tools seeking to bring greater transparency to the governance and use of land in the context of land-based investments. The first, OpenLandContracts.org, is an online repository of publicly available contracts for large-scale land, agriculture, and forestry projects. The repository makes land contracts easier to find and understand, informing public authorities, empowering communities, and supporting increased transparency around land investments. The second tool, Global Forest Watch, is an online forest monitoring and alert system that provides information needed to better manage and conserve forests, including timely and precise information and alerts about the status of forest landscapes worldwide. Both tools serve a variety of stakeholders, including governments, communities, civil society, the private sector, and the general public.
The webinar is aimed at stakeholders, including representatives from government, civil society, and the private sector, who work on, or are interested in, transparency around land use, land governance, and land investments. It will include a discussion on current trends, opportunities, and challenges regarding land transparency and land investment, including how OpenLandContracts.org and Global Forest Watch can be used by different stakeholders to increase transparency and improve the implementation of land investments, before engaging in an interactive Q&A session with audience members. The webinar builds on last year's OGP conference panel on "Improving Openness and Transparency in Land-Based Investments."
Speakers:
Yuliya Panfil, Property Rights Investments Team, Omidyar NetworkAs an associate at Omidyar Network, Yuliya sources and manages investments for the Property Rightsinitiative. Prior to joining the firm, Yuliya was a land governance and legal advisor at USAID, where sheoversaw USAID's responsible land-based investment practice and led USAID's private sector and donorengagement on land and property rights issues.
Sam Szoke-Burke, Legal Researcher, Columbia Center on Sustainable InvestmentSam works on CCSI's focus areas of land and agriculture, extractive industries, and human rights and investment. Prior to joining CCSI, Sam worked as a legal consultant for the Land, Environment and Development project at the Legal Assistance Centre, Namibia, where he worked with various indigenous communities on legal claims relating to land and natural resources.
Jessica Webb, Civil Society Engagement Manager, Global Forest Watch, World Resources InstituteJessica leads efforts to ensure that civil society organizations (CSOs) around the world have access to the information and evidence they need to sustainably manage forests and promote accountability among decision-makers. She also manages the GFW Small Grants Fund. Jessica has a decade of experience working with international CSOs on issues including sustainability standards and certification, community conservation, ecotourism, access to education, and spatial analysis for conservation project planning.
For more information please click here. To register please click here.
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KnowTheChain report highlights gaps and better practices on worker voice and remedy
"Forced Labor Action Compared: Findings from Three Sectors. With recommendations for companies across sectors, business and multi-stakeholder associations, and investors", 18 Apr 2017
In 2016, KnowTheChain ranked 60 companies across three high-risk sectors on their efforts to eradicate forced labor from their global supply chains. Selecting some of the largest companies in information and communications technology (ICT), food and beverage, and apparel and footwear, worth a combined market capitalization of more than US $4 trillion, KnowTheChain produced three benchmarks.
KnowTheChain released an analysis of these benchmarks, including cross-sector comparisons, examples of best practice, and recommendations on common areas where companies can improve.
Some key findings across the three sectors:
Average sector scores were below 50/100, indicating significant room for improvement across sectors.
In each sector, one company received a score of 0/100 (Belle International, Monster Beverage, Keyence), indicating a concerning lack of action.
Apparel companies tend to be more advanced in their efforts, while food & beverage companies lag behind. This reflects the level of media attention and civil society pressure companies in each of the sectors have received.
KnowTheChain’s analysis shows that all evaluated companies have a long way to go to truly address the risk of forced labor in their supply chains. Yet, examples of good practice, particularly from the apparel sector, offer models that low scoring companies can follow. Nike and Primark should be commended for their effective methods of worker engagement, and Adidas and H&M demonstrate strong methods of addressing restrictions to freedom of association and trade union engagement. The report highlights findings that can benefit companies regardless of their sector, and makes recommendations for business associations, multi-stakeholder associations and investors on future steps to combat the risks of forced labor.
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In photos: South Asia's hazardous ship graveyards - Indian and Bangladeshi workers facing precarious conditions
4 Apr 2017
Indian and Bangladeshi workers face precarious conditions while dismantling decommissioned ships. The lack of environmental and safety standards reduces the costs associated with the work, but jeopardizes workers' lives. [Photos in the linked page.]
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Bangladesh cuts off electricity supply, other utilities of leather producers in Hazaribagh due to environmental concerns
"Bangladesh cuts power to leather district after years of environmental violations", 11 Apr 2017
After more than 15 years of ignored high court rulings and inaction, the government in Bangladesh moved against more than 100 tanneries...by cutting off the leather producers’ electricity and other utilities in the capital’s Hazaribagh neighborhood.
Tanneries in that district were featured in a...PBS NewsHour/Pulitzer Crisis for Crisis Reporting report, “Toxic Business – Inside the Tanneries of Bangladesh.” Journalists Justin Kenny, Larry C. Price and Adam Matthews visited Hazaribagh and found a densely packed residential neighborhood filled with rotting animal hides, garbage, human waste, and untreated tannery wastewater being pumped into neighborhood waterways (you can watch the full report here).
Inside some of the tanneries, the team found children...working barefoot as they manned machinery and handled animal hides dripping with toxic chemicals. The majority of the workers inside the tanneries visited wore no footwear, gloves, masks or respirators, despite exposure to sulfuric acid...chromium (including one form that has been identified as a carcinogen associated with lung, nasal and sinus cancer) and sodium sulfide (corrosive to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract), among other harmful substances...
The water, gas and electricity cut-offs mark the most significant action taken by Bangladesh’s government since the High Court began ruling against the Hazaribagh tanneries in July of 2001. The judicial body has ruled over the past several years that the tanneries must treat their wastewater, shut down operations in Hazaribagh and relocate to an industrial park on the outskirts of Dhaka…
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Lunch meeting with human rights defender Andy Hall
Please join Free the Slaves and The Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center for a brown bag lunch with Andy Hall, renowned human rights advocate and labor rights activist.
In early 2013, Hall was sued for criminal defamation in Thailand after the publication of the Finnwatch report "Cheap Has a High Price." The report included allegations of poor working conditions, unlawfully low wages, confiscation of official documents, use of child labor, and excessive overtime. Hall's legal case in Thailand received extensive press coverage. Hall's lawyers continue to battle the criminal charges levied against him.
Please contact danielle@htprobono.org to RSVP.
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Commentary: Business case for private sector's involvement in conserving Lake Victoria, including protecting livelihoods
"Africa’s businesses should help shape policies to protect our lakes"
Here is a question: what do the following have in common? A Kigoma fish wholesaler. The manager of a lakeside resort in Entebbe. A gold mine in eastern Congo. Malawi’s state electricity company. A Kenyan flower farmer, or the Kisumu city authorities. All are outfits heavily reliant for profit and growth on clean and reliable water from [Lake Victoria]...As many as 50 million Africans earn their living from these seven lakes. An even higher number are customers of those businesses. So, it will be of urgent concern to those companies’ management that increasingly the water their operations need are neither clean nor reliable. Because of that, whether through increased taxes or levies, higher production costs, or even the poor health of employees, deteriorating water supplies are starting progressively to shrink profits...
Unregulated timber felling in Congo; mining gold with cyanide and mercury in Kenya; untreated waste piped into lakes in Uganda; the relentless climb of Rwanda’s farms up its famous thousand hills. All of these are by-products of income-generating activities that put strains on water resources, and those strains will eventually cycle back and be felt in those businesses’ bottom lines. But, so far, the private sector—so crucial to solutions to arrest this decline and instead usher in ways to sustain lake resources—has been minimally involved in discussions about the future of Africa’s Great Lakes.
...Their voices must be heard, and adding their understanding to the best in global and regional science, and government attention and support, could finally give Africa’s Great Lakes the lifelines they need...[T]hose lakes are in a near-terminal state because of the environmental impacts on them. Yes, that is terrible ecologically. But it is very bad for business, too.
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Access to Remedy through non-judicial grievance mechanisms
This short online course will provide participants with a solid introduction into the business and human rights framework and non-judicial grievance mechanisms that can be used to obtain remedy for business-related human rights abuses.
Programme:This pilot online course will run between 15 May 2016 and 3 July 2017 (15:00 – 17:00 CET) and consists of 4 online sessions with in-between homework, videos, quizzes and resource material that will help you understand and further explore the material covered in the online sessions. The knowledge shared during this course will be applied to participants' personal case assignments to maximize learning. The course further offers an en easy accessible e-learning platform (for a preview go to https://learn.somo.nl/course/accesstoremedy) where all the course information, assignments and resources can be found. The work load for the learning trajectory is approximately one to two hours per week in addition to participation in the online session. After having successfully completed the course, participants will receive a certificate of participation.
The course builds up participants' knowledge on international access to remedy through the following sessions:
15 May - Session 1: Business and Human Rights framework
29 May - Session 2: Human Rights Due Diligence
19 June - Session 3: Introduction to non-judicial grievance mechanisms and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
3 July - Session 4: Development finance institutions and steps how to file complaints
Registration:This course is intended for CSOs from around the world who work on a specific case of corporate misconduct and are interested in learning more about the potential of non-judicial grievance mechanism to obtain remedy for business-related human rights abuses. Participation is free of charge. Prior registration is required and does not guarantee participation. A participant selection will be made on the basis of motivation and gender balance. A laptop or computer with sufficiently stable internet and audio connectivity is a requirement for this course.Link to registration page: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RL8KPZYDeadline for registrations is 3 May 2017. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of selection by the 5th of May.
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Investigation finds European Bank for Reconstruction & Development fails to respect labour rights in loan to Turkish tractor manufacturer
"Investigation finds: European Development Bank fails to respect labor rights in Turkish investment"
An independent investigation report, published last week, concludes that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) failed to ensure protection of core labor standards when providing a EUR 30 million loan to Türk Traktör – a Turkish manufacturer of tractors and agricultural machinery. In response, EBRD committed to improve their internal procedures and commission an analysis on the gaps between international labor law and national law. The Bank, however, fails to commit to any concrete measures that would improve conditions or provide remedy for affected workers. The investigation, conducted by the EBRD’s independent Project Complaint Mechanism (PCM), was in response to a complaint filed in September 2015 by the Turkish union, Birleşik Metal İş, with the support of SOMO. The complaint argued that Türk Traktör was in violation of EBRD’s labor policy when it dismissed 20 Türk Traktör workers and workers’ representatives after they took part in a country-wide strike in May-June 2015, in which more than 30,000 metal workers demanded respect for their right to establish and join a labor union of their choosing. In addition the complaint also raised issues of compulsory and excessive overtime, salary levels, and the validity of the existing collective bargaining agreement – negotiated by a union workers are forced to join... [includes link to 2015 complaint by Turkish union, Birleşik Metal İş and 2017 report by Project Complaint Mechanism]
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