Essex Business and Human Rights Project

24/04/2019

Our latest report is out! In this report, Dr Chiara Macchi, Dr Tara Van Ho and Luis Felipe Yanes examine the obligations of institutional investors when investing in businesses that operate in occupied territories. The report focuses on the obligations of Norway's Oil Fund, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, in relation to investments in businesses operating in Palestine.

You can see the executive summary below & read the report the Norwegian People's Aid site (click on the title of the report under the red box) here: https://www.folkehjelp.no/Nyheter/Nyhetsarkiv/2019/Bryter-oljefondet-menneskerettighetene-naar-de-investerer-i-okkuperte-palestinske-omraader

15/09/2018

EBHR is pleased to announce that next year we will be hosting the 2019 Global Business & Human Rights Scholars Association meeting! Mark your calendars for 13-15 September 2019 & join the Scholars Association for easy updates about :

BECOME A MEMBER Membership in the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association is open to all scholars worldwide who work in the field of business and human rights. It is not necessary that members be affiliated with an academic institution. However, prospective members must display some ev...

15/09/2018

English courts are creating inaccessible remedies for victims, according to our Frontrunner Lisa Kadel and Project Associates Dr Anil Yilmaz-Vastardis & Dr Tara Van Ho. Check out their post here:

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/inaccessible-remedies-the-unrealistic-expectations-of-proof-in-aaa-v-unilever

In a disappointing judgment, the Court of Appeal (‘CA’) in England dismissed the case of AAA v Unilever in which victims of ethnic violence claimed that parent company, Unilever PLC (‘Unilever’), and its Kenyan subsidiary, Unilever Tea Kenya Ltd (‘Unilever Kenya’) were responsible for in...

04/05/2018

Today, Dr Anil Yilmaz-Vastardis and Dr Tara Van Ho led a coalition of 23 academics in asking the UK Supreme Court to grant leave to appeal in v , an important case for . You can read their submission here:

Rule 15 submission to the Supreme Court by Concerned Academics and Practitioners regarding Okpabi and others v Royal Dutch Shell Plc and another UKSC 2018/0068.

05/11/2016

On 15 November, EBHR is joining forces with Colombian human rights think tank Dejusticia and Essex Transitional Justice Network to host a drinks reception and conversation on corporate accountability in Colombian transitional justice. We invite anyone interested in Colombia's peace & transitional justice or business & human rights as well as all local alumni to join us at Le Scandale (14 rue de Lausanne) from 20.00 onwards. Because we are providing drinks, please RSVP as indicated in the poster.

The (short) conversation on Colombia will start promptly at 20.10 and will be streamed live on Facebook at the ETJN page: https://www.facebook.com/EssexTJN/

13/04/2016

A belated congratulations to EBHR friend Surya Deva on his election to the UN Working Group on Business & Human Rights. In 2014, EBHR had the pleasure of co-organizing a panel on the corporate veil with Surya at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. EBHR Director Sheldon Leader and Project Associate Tara Van Ho have also worked with Surya separately on academic publications. We are confident he'll do a fantastic job in this post and look forward to following the developments of the Working Group this year.

15/02/2016

Puvan Selvanathan's open letter of resignation from the UN Working Group on B&HR certainly offers some food for thought.
"The Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Global Compact ‘handle’ business for human rights at the UN. My close association with both offices over several years, and study of how they interrelate, suggests that neither is fit for the purpose of engendering business to respect human rights. Neither OHCHR nor the GC understands what motivates companies or how they are incentivised. My observation is that OHCHR is entirely ‘stick’ while the GC is solely ‘carrot’..."

19/01/2016

This report is the first comprehensive account of how cobalt enters the supply chain of many of the world’s leading brands. It highlights the failure of these companies to identify where the cobalt in their products comes from.

This report documents the hazardous conditions in which artisanal miners, including thousands of children, mine cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It goes on to trace how this cobalt is used to power mobile phones, laptop computers, and other portable electronic devices. Using basic han…

18/12/2015

http://unpo.org/article/18809

07/11/2015

EBHR is co-organizing three side events at this year's UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. Below are fliers for two of the events. Additionally, we have an event on the role of academics in business & human rights. That will take place on Monday from 10:00-11:20 in Room XII.

We hope those of you who will be in Geneva will join us for this events!

17/09/2015

Great initiative by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

"There are lawyers on the ground all over the world, directly helping affected people challenge abuse by companies and obtain justice. Their work is crucial, but often not widely publicised. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has built an international directory of lawyers working on cases of human rights abuse involving companies. The directory aims to help victims of abuse find legal assistance in a range of countries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK9b7Fuaxic"

03/08/2015

http://innovation-forum.co.uk/ethical-trade.php

Ethical trade and human rights forum Transforming supply chains for responsible business at scale 19-20 October 2015, London, UK Created in partnership with the Ethical Trading Initiative, this multi-stakeholder conference is designed to move delegates beyond an audit and CSR-based era to a future o…