Human Rights, the Environment and Mining: Holding Transnational Corporations Accountable
Litigation that tests the division between corporate and state human rights obligations, and the synergies between environmental and human rights law, is currently underway in Peru. The Tintaya-Antapaccay mine in...
Kiobel v. Cravath: An Example of How a Little-Known U.S. Law can be Used as a Pre-Litigation Tool Overseas
When Esther Kiobel—who believes Shell collaborated with Nigerian authorities to commit gross human rights abuses, including the murder of her husband—could not find justice by suing Shell in U.S courts,...
Environmental Human Rights in the Trump Era: Modes of Resistance and Reform
The ecological ramifications of the Trump administration may well prove catastrophic. Climate change denial and problematic fossil fuel positions featured prominently in the President’s campaign; post-election, far-right nominations and policy...
Foreign Legal Assistance applications: a strategy to advance accountability for transnational human rights abuses
In 2014, 40 million liters of toxic mining waste spilled from the Buenavista del Cobre copper mine into the Bacanuchi and Sonora Rivers, contaminating the water source of over 25,000...
Indigenous Peoples and Land Demarcation in Brazil: A Never-Ending Process?
From 7 to 17 March 2016, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, visited three Brazilian states and the Federal District in order to assess and...
Environmental Destruction: A Shift in the International Criminal Court’s Priorities
A recent policy document announced by the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has reiterated the importance of focusing on the prosecution of individuals who have committed atrocities...
Extending Caste Discrimination Liability to Multi-National Corporations in India: Lessons From Coca-Cola in Kerala
The Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act of 1989 (hereafter, ‘the Act’) in India guarantees an institutional framework which, among other things, prevents the rampant public and cultural...
Sustainable Conservation: The Rights-Based Way to Save Africa’s Rainforests
A new report by the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) shows that people living in Africa’s Congo Basin face widespread and intensifying human rights abuses in the name of conservation. Addressing...
Appalachia in Crisis: A Human Rights Approach to Environmental Justice in the U.S.
The natural resource extraction industry has long wrought environmental, social, and economic devastation in Appalachia—a U.S. region historically defined by a deeply exploitative coal extraction mono-economy. However, in tandem with...
A Tale of Two Treaties: The Clean Power Plan
World leaders met near Paris almost a century ago promising to cooperate to end the scourge of war. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson touted his country’s contributions to international cooperation leading...
Understanding One of the Worst Environmental Disaster in Brazil’s History
On November 5 2015, the Fundão dam—property of the mining company Samarco—collapsed, sending more than forty billion litres of ore tailings into a small town called Bento Rodrigues district, in...
Nigerian Farmers Can Sue Shell in Dutch Court: Precedent for Transnational Cases against Multinationals
A recent ruling by the Court of Appeal in The Hague signals new hope on the horizon for victims seeking a judicial remedy for corporate negligence or human rights abuse....
