VIDEO: How can companies integrate human rights into their business purposes and strategies
Hannah Temple is Director of Consulting at twentyfifity ltd., the world’s first human rights and business specialist management consultancy. Since 2004, twentyfifty has helped some of the world’s largest businesses to powerfully and practically respect human rights across their operations and value chains. twentyfifty supports its clients to practically implement what is known as human […]
VIDEO: What is the place of human rights in the business environment?
Professor Michael K. Addo is Director of the London Law Program at the University of Notre Dame. His expertise is recognized beyond the academy including his appointment to the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights (2011-2018) with a mandate to promote the implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and […]
Three Promises Lidl Has Made to Protect its Food Workers
But there is another group of frontline food workers doing the same, hidden from view, those who produce the products we are all trying to buy, such as tea, coffee, prawns, fruit and vegetables. Even before Coronavirus, Oxfam research highlighted workers’ vulnerability, earning low wages on insecure contracts, often with poor sick pay and hygiene arrangements. In 2018, we launched the Behind the […]
Covid-19: ‘We Won’t Get Back to Normal Because Normal was the Problem’
The crisis is set to generate a loss of at least 1.5% or $1 trillion worldwide, which would technically mean a global recession with all major regions affected and a devastating impact on the poorest countries. Plans for recovery are already being discussed, with a focus on the financial stimulus needed to help economies recover. But […]
Managing Human Rights Risks: Embracing a More Robust Approach to Human Rights Risks in Supply Chains
Oxfam will lead a panel at Business Fights Poverty Oxford 2019 on its supermarket campaign, Behind the Barcodes, giving a platform to two influential supermarkets as well as perspectives from consumers, investors and a multi-stakeholder initiative on ethical trade. The top six UK supermarkets have already responded to the campaign. As more consumers and investors […]
Winners of Stop Slavery Award at International Human Rights Forum announced
Apple has been named winner of the Stop Slavery Award, which recognises businesses that have set a gold standard in efforts to eradicate forced labour from their supply chains. The Judging Board agreed that Apple’s supplier responsibility programme ‘is leading in every category’, highlighting the company’s supplier engagement, monitoring and ‘extremely robust’ audit programme, which includes annual audits and […]
What More Should Supermarkets do to Respect Workers’ Rights in their Supply Chain?
Oxfam’s Ripe for Change report highlights hunger and suffering amongst the people who grow and process our food. Across a basket of 12 common food products, we present evidence of in-work poverty and a deep disempowerment, especially among women workers. As well as this, we show the decline in the share of the consumer price going to […]
Advocating Together for the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights
Long gone are the days when companies and NGOS could barely talk to each other. NGO-private sector partnerships are now the order of the day, and governments increasingly hope that companies will help in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from poverty reduction to climate change. But joint advocacy between companies and NGOs is still […]
Communities First: Top Human Rights Priorities for Extractives Companies
As former UN Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson once said, “We must understand the role of human rights as empowering of individuals and communities. By protecting these rights, we can help prevent the many conflicts based on poverty, discrimination, and exclusion (social, economic, and political) that continue to plague humanity and destroy decades of […]
Respect for Human Rights: Creating a Holistic Framework for Business Contributions to the SDGs
This short framework for analysis and action offers a straightforward way for any company to work out how it should and can contribute to sustainable development. What’s the current problem with the way some organizations are talking about business contributions to sustainable development – and what’s a better path forward? 1. The problem: misunderstanding the […]
Eliminating Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Supply Chains
By Norma Tregurtha, Policy & Outreach Director, ISEAL Two years have passed since the UK Government passed the Modern Slavery Act (2015), designed to prevent slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory labour and human trafficking. It is currently estimated that 13,000 men, women and children suffer modern slavery or forced labour in the UK. Globally, an […]
One for All, and All for One: Industry-Level Collaboration is Needed to Eradicate Forced Labour
According to the ILO, nearly 21 million people are subjected to forced labour around the world (an alternative estimate from the Walk Free Foundation, which is working with the ILO to release updated figures this year, puts the number more than twice as high). This activity generates $150 billion in illegal profits every year. 71% […]
Seeing Evidence of Company Action on Modern Slavery
Initiative ETI is recommending that companies place their Modern Slavery Statements in the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s Central Registry for Modern Slavery Statements arguing that it provides the only independent, credible, free, open and accessible repository that is accountable to the public interest. In this important blog, Cindy Berman explains why. Go to […]
What Does “Good” Look Like for Companies Trying to Address Modern Slavery?
As the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights opens today in Geneva, Quintin Lake, Research Fellow at Hult International Business School, discusses modern slavery. Addressing modern slavery is becoming a business-critical for companies – for credibility with customers, investors, NGOs and the public – according to new research by Hult International Business School and […]
How to Effectively Engage Business on Human Rights
Since the publication of the UN Guiding Principles and new regulation such as theModern Slavery Act, engaging business leaders on human rights has become extremely important. As the lead on human rights at SABMiller, one of my challenges has been to demystify the topic and help people focus on what it means in practice– all […]
Labour Rights in Unilever’s Vietnam Supply Chain
Rachel Wilshaw, Ethical Trade Manager for Oxfam, introduces their latest report on labour rights in Vietnam, a unique study done in conjunction with Unilever. Five years ago, Oxfam and Unilever agreed to an unusual study. Unilever opened up its business so Oxfam could understand how it managed labour rights, and what this meant for workers […]
Tackling Slavery in Supply Chains – What Can We Do?
The ILO estimates that there are approximately 21 million people enslaved around the world at present – these will include many people who are in bonded labour, those trafficked and kept against their will in enslaved situations – but slavery also exists in global supply chains. Modern Slavery can also take the form of exploitation […]
The Global Goals and the Ruggie Principles
“The Sustainable Development Goals represent the biggest opportunity for awareness-raising on business and human rights since the UN Guiding Principles [on Business and Human Rights] were introduced.” So said a respected speaker at the recent Business and Human Rights Symposium organised by the International Organisation of Employers. Equally, there is a consensus that the skills, […]
A Framework for Justice
From the program of the 2016 Skoll World Forum. Justice is our north star. It provides the bearings to guide us through territory fraught with tests of character and will. It steers us to ever more powerful solutions to the pressing problems of our time. It summons in us the courage and fortitude to tackle […]
Obama Unshackles Slavery Ban
In 1938 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt effectively ended child labour in the United States by prohibiting its use in interstate commerce. He couldn’t outlaw the use of child labour in production because working age laws are determined at the state level. So he solved the problem in a realm he did control: trade. In 2016 […]