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Ramy Abdu - 9th December 2020
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) continues to stand out as a region with repeated and serious abuses of human rights. We are on the cusp of the 10th anniversary of the so-called Arab Spring, which erupted with such blazing hope for change among the next generation. In the years since, Egypt has sunk […]
Pedro R. Borges de Carvalho and Amy Pearl Douglas - 24th November 2020
This piece briefly contextualises and reports on the final stretch of the Responsible Business Initiative (RBI) legislative process in Switzerland and delves into the legal provisions of the competing drafts to be submitted to a referendum in late November. On 29 November 2020, Swiss citizens will vote on the Responsible Business Initiative (RBI), a new […]
Sriram Prasad and Ashish Mishra - 30th September 2020
The recent attempted takeover of an English Premier League (EPL) club backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund elicited allegations of sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s dismal human rights record. Such allegations of sportswashing are not uncommon, when states try to use the glamour of sport as a public relations tool to improve their international image. […]
- 25th August 2020
Recently, a human rights complaint was registered against Unilever at the United Nations by a group of Kenyan tea plantation workers from its Kericho plantation facility. The matter pertains to Unilever’s failure to protect its employees from post-election violence in 2007. Unilever’s failure to respond appropriately to the crisis resulted in more than 1000 workers […]
Jade Weiner - 11th August 2020
On 5 November 2015, a devastating mudslide following the collapse of the Fundao Dam tore through Mariana, Brazil, destroying entire cities, decimating the environment and destroying historic, cultural and religious traditions in the area. 19 people lost their lives, tonnes of fish died, and over 600km of waterways were polluted in what is regarded as […]
Mohit Kar - 11th May 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic is spreading rapidly across India. India has had a long-drawn struggle around affordable universal healthcare and this disease would be a tough test for its resources. Covid-19 has no clinically approved antiviral or vaccine yet. Thus, on the plea of the World Health Organization (“WHO”) research across the world has ensued, giving […]
Deirdre McCann - 27th April 2020
A few weeks before the lockdown, one of the most important UK labour law cases of the last decade was heard by the Supreme Court. Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson Blake has not attracted the attention paid to the Uber litigation, also to reach the Supreme Court later this year. Yet Mencap will have significant […]
Jason Brickhill - 21st August 2019
On 26 July 2019, the High Court approved a settlement between 20 goldmining companies operating in South Africa (including African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold) and representative plaintiffs in the silicosis class action, described as unprecedented in its scale and complexity. The settlement establishes the Tshiamiso Trust worth at least […]
Natalia Brigagao - 18th July 2019
In 1998, there was an explosion at an irregular, high-risk fireworks factory in the city of Santo Antônio de Jesus, Brazil, which led to 64 deaths and left six people severely injured. Survivors and family members were not offered due access to justice, which led them to report the violations to the Inter-American Commission of […]
Gerry Liston - 17th July 2019
Hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue are lost to governments – and particularly those of developing countries – annually as a result of deficiencies in the global taxation system, undermining their ability to realise a range of socio-economic rights. Yet Article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) requires […]
Catherine Fisk - 8th July 2019
California, many other states, and the United States government, have laws imposing minimum standards of employment (such as wages and hours), limited financial benefits for workers who become unemployed or are injured in the course of employment, and benefits for employees after retirement age or who become unable to work because of disability. Most of […]