The Genocide Amendment: Suitability of the High Court (Part II)
In the previous post, I highlighted the UK Government’s reluctance to endorse the Genocide Amendment. A central objection raised by the Government was that the determination of genocide should be...
Indemnity clauses in Mining Development Agreements in Zambia
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...
Can Facebook Ban President Trump? A Question for Business and Human Rights
As a business and human rights scholar, I often argue that we need to regulate and limit transnational corporate power. My focus is on multinational enterprises, typically headquartered in the...
Municipio de Mariana Ors v BHP Plc BHP Ltd – “access [to justice] denied”
On 09 November 2020, Mr Justice Turner of the High Court, handed down a judgment that denied the jurisdiction of the English Court to adjudicate the liability of BHP Plc...
COVID-19 pandemic exposes cost of MENA governments’ lack of human rights standards for businesses
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...
Mandatory corporate due diligence in Switzerland: the upcoming referendum on the Responsible Business Initiative
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...
Kabwe mine: taking rights seriously in a toxic city
Mining activities in Zambia, while economically beneficial (accounting for roughly 70 per cent of GDP), have produced negative effects, not least pollution to the environment. The scale of industrial pollution...
Need for human rights due diligence to curb sportswashing
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...
Irish Supreme Court quashes climate mitigation plan: environmental rights caught between redundancy and vagueness
On 31 July 2020, the Irish Supreme Court annulled the government’s climate mitigation plan. A grand chamber of – exceptionally – seven judges ruled unanimously that the plan did not...
Where are the human rights in the green economy transition?
The emergence of a green economy during the COVID-19 crisis presents a significant opportunity for the commercialisation of low-carbon solutions that catalyses an important emerging market, incentivising investors and governments...
Using Human Rights to Protect the Environment in Kenya
Kenya’s Environment and Land Court recently awarded the inhabitants of Owino-Uhuru village in Mombasa, damages worth 1.3 billion Kenyan Shillings and further directed that 700 million be dedicated towards an...
The Kenyan Tea Workers’ Case: Evaluating the Impediments to Holding MNCs Accountable for the Actions of their Subsidiaries
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...
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