The UK Corporate Justice Coalition (CJC), of which Banana Link is a partner, are calling for a new law to hold UK businesses, the finance and public sectors to account when they fail to prevent supply chain human rights abuses and environmental harms.
A petition signed by over 145,000 people and delivered to No. 10 Downing Street last week, is calling for the new law to mandate all businesses and the public sector to take all reasonable steps to prevent human rights and environmental harm in their operations, subsidiaries, and value chains. This includes by conducting ‘human rights and environmental due diligence ‘(HREDD) in line with international standards.
The new law would ensure real consequences for companies that are doing nothing to prevent harm from happening and help to level the playing field for responsible businesses that are put at an economic disadvantage for doing the right thing.
The clear case for a new law
According to the CJC, businesses owned or operating in the UK have caused, contributed and been linked to serious human rights and environmental abuses both domestically and abroad, including Boohoo’s sweatshops in Leicester, Shell’s oil pollution in the Niger Delta, deforestation in Brazil, and Uyghur forced labour, among myriad other harms.
Banana Link itself has documented human rights abuses in tropical fruit supply chains for over thirty years, most recently in our report on shortcomings in wages, contractual conditions and freedom of association among banana plantation workers in El Oro, Ecuador.
And it is the scale of these abuses that demonstrates the urgent need for new UK legislation to safeguard human rights and the environment, ensuring that companies and the public sector act to prevent, address and remedy harm in their domestic and global operations, subsidiaries, supply and value chains.
The campaign believes that a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act (BHREA) would:
- Plug the serious legal gaps that enable companies to profit from the UK’s weak regulatory regime
- Improve the UK’s international reputation regarding human rights and the environment
- Create a level playing field, to ensure that responsible businesses that do take steps to prevent human rights and environmental harms are not at a competitive disadvantage
- Respond to the widespread business, political, and public demand for a new law
Improving the UK’s international reputation on human rights and the environment
Although the UK was the first country to adopt a National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights and introduce the Modern Slavery Act, our international reputation as a frontrunner on business and human rights legislation has suffered in recent years as progress has stalled, and we have fallen behind other nations.
UK businesses have a responsibility to respect human rights, workers’ rights and environmental standards in their operations and value chains. The UK has committed to implement international standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The UK is also a state party to multiple international human rights and environmental treaties that it must uphold.
A BHREA would provide legal certainty and help the UK improve its reputation in supporting and upholding international human rights law. It would demonstrate willingness on the part of UK decision makers to address our global impact, enable the UK to keep pace with progressive legal developments elsewhere, and ensure we meet our international obligations using a world-leading British model.
Find out more about the campaign and how you can support it at:
corporatejusticecoalition.org/our-campaigns/due-diligence-law/
Photo: Campaign members at Downing Street with Labour MP Richard Burgon and Green MP Ellie Chowns (CJC)
