Human rights defenders have confronted brutal reprisals for standing as much as extractive industries with hyperlinks to UK corporations or buyers, in keeping with a report calling for a legislation obliging companies to do human rights and environmental due diligence.
Peace Brigades Worldwide (PBI) UK says a company accountability legislation requiring companies to do due diligence on their operations, investments and provide chains may have prevented previous environmental devastation and assaults.
Its report, revealed on Thursday, particulars instances from Colombia, Honduras, Indonesia and Mexico the place it says human rights defenders have paid the worth for UK company income.
Christina Challis, the advocacy supervisor at PBI UK, mentioned: “A compulsory due diligence legislation is required to oblige UK companies to determine, stop and mitigate their impacts, and to make sure there are penalties in the event that they don’t. This may imply that much less communities must take a stand, and result in much less dangers for individuals who select to.
“The UK is behind the curve. Labour can solely reside as much as its pre-election guarantees to guard rights and the setting in the event that they maintain firms to account.”
Calling for a brand new act, PBI UK, one among 39 civil society teams within the Company Justice Coalition, says necessary due diligence legal guidelines exist already in France, Germany and Norway whereas the EU has permitted a directive on the matter.
It says such a legislation ought to reverse the burden of proof on to companies in order that they’re liable the place they failed to forestall hurt except they took all cheap steps to forestall it from occurring.
Among the many instances highlighted within the report are that of the FTSE 100 firm Fresnillo, which was discovered by a Mexican agrarian court docket to have operated a goldmine illegally on communal land and was ordered to pay compensation and restore the positioning. There has additionally been violence in opposition to anti-mining activists in Sonora, north-west Mexico.
Fresnillo has mentioned it was not accountable for the deaths of neighborhood members and that its personal staff have been victims of violence. It mentioned it had complied with all legal guidelines and had vacated land as instructed by the court docket.
Jesús Javier Thomas, who campaigned in opposition to the mine, is amongst a gaggle of Indigenous and Afro-descendent representatives from Indonesia, Peru and Colombia and grassroots land defenders from Kenya, Liberia and Mexico who will meet a cross-party group of parliamentarians in Westminster to demand a brand new legislation. “Revenue can’t be put earlier than life,” he mentioned.
One other instance highlighted is that of UK-listed firm, Amerisur, which was accused of colluding with Farc guerillas amid opposition to its oil exploitation within the Colombian Amazon. The corporate denies the allegations.
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The report says greater than 150 corporations and buyers, parliamentarians from throughout the political spectrum and 4 in 5 Britons (primarily based on a YouGov ballot) have backed a brand new act.
The Division for Enterprise and Commerce mentioned: “We’re clear that no firm within the UK ought to have pressured labour in its provide chain, irrespective of the place they function on this planet, and that companies ought to act the place they discover points.
“We’ve additionally strengthened the foundations on excluding suppliers linked to fashionable slavery from public procurement alternatives. We hold our method to how the UK can finest sort out pressured labour and environmental harms in provide chains underneath continuous overview.”
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