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OxHRH

Xinjiang Cotton and Corporate Criminal Liability under Hong Kong’s National Security Law

Roshan Melwani - 15th April 2021

Business & Human Rights| Labour Rights

In recent months, rights experts have voiced increasing concern over reports of widespread human rights abuses and forced labour in Xinjiang. In turn, foreign governments have imposed economic sanctions on businesses and factories implicated in these abusive practices, particularly against companies using Xinjiang cotton either in their manufacturing processes or their supply-chain. The escalation of […]

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Saudi Arabia must protect financial rights of migrant workers

Ramy Abdu - 15th March 2021

Business & Human Rights| Immigration and Asylum| Labour Rights

On 14 March, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, long known for the oppressive treatment of foreign workers, enacted a law awarding more rights to foreign workers. However, more than half of those labourers, or five categories, remain subject to the country’s deeply exploitative kafala (sponsorship) system. That must change. While those covered by the legal […]

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OxHRH

Queensland Court to consider Australia’s first ‘climate change’ human rights case

- 9th March 2021

Business & Human Rights| Environmental Rights

As an increasing number of cases worldwide link climate change and human rights (for instance, see here), the first litigation of this kind in Australia is proceeding before Queensland’s Land Court. Youth Verdict and Bimblebox Alliance (the Applicants) object to applications to develop a thermal coal project, arguing that granting the applications would be incompatible […]

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An opportunity lost for the protection of freedom of expression and LGBTI rights in Jamaica

Anika Gray - 25th February 2021

Business & Human Rights| Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression| Sexual Orientation

On 30 October 2020, the Jamaican Court of Appeal handed down its long awaited judgment in the case of Tomlinson v TVJ and CVM. Tomlinson, a gay Jamaican man, argued that his right to freedom of expression was infringed when Jamaica’s two major and privately-owned television stations refused to air his paid advertisement calling for […]

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OxHRH

Trump and Twitter: A Freedom of Speech Quagmire

Sfiso Nxumalo - 27th January 2021

Business & Human Rights| Right to Freedom of Speech and Expression

The banning of US President Donald Trump from Twitter and many other social media platforms, after his public utterances and tweets were said to have led to the insurrection and violent siege of the Capitol, has been celebrated by many, with some commenting that Trump should have been de-platformed a long time ago. While many […]

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Indemnity clauses in Mining Development Agreements in Zambia

Mwai Daka - 25th January 2021

Business & Human Rights| Environmental Rights

Zambia has signed indemnity agreements with numerous multinational corporations investing in her mining sector. The agreements enable subsidiaries of international firms to be exempted from liability for environmental pollution that affects both the ecosystem and humans that inhabit it. Though Zambian courts have enjoyed some success in hold mining companies liable for environmental degradation, indemnity […]

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COVID-19 pandemic exposes cost of MENA governments’ lack of human rights standards for businesses

Ramy Abdu - 9th December 2020

Business & Human Rights| Migration Asylum and Trafficking| Socio-Economic Rights and Labour Rights

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 […]

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OxHRH

Mandatory corporate due diligence in Switzerland: the upcoming referendum on the Responsible Business Initiative

Pedro R. Borges de Carvalho and Amy Pearl Douglas - 24th November 2020

Business & Human Rights| Business & Resources & Environment & Development

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 […]

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Need for human rights due diligence to curb sportswashing

Sriram Prasad and Ashish Mishra - 30th September 2020

Business & Human Rights

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. […]

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The Kenyan Tea Workers’ Case: Evaluating the Impediments to Holding MNCs Accountable for the Actions of their Subsidiaries

- 25th August 2020

Business & Human Rights

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 […]

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BHP to be Dammed?

Jade Weiner - 11th August 2020

Access to Justice| Business & Human Rights| Business & Resources & Environment & Development

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 […]

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OxHRH

Covid-19, Patents and Access to Medication in India

Mohit Kar - 11th May 2020

Business & Human Rights| Socio-Economic Rights

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 […]

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