Last week, governments met at the United Nations in Vienna to discuss potential changes to the ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) system. This parallel justice system, benefitting multinationals and elite corporate lawyers, has been widely criticised around the world for its damaging impacts on the environment, on democracy and on public budgets.
Last week, 94 countries negotiated at the UN in Geneva the draft text for a binding treaty on business and human rights. The aim of this treaty is to stop human rights violations by transnational corporations and to give victims globally fair access to justice. You would expect the European Union (EU) to play a leading role in this process - but the EU and member states chose to remain silent.
This week, world leaders will meet at the United Nations in Geneva to negotiate a historic international treaty to ensure companies respect human rights and the environment in their global operations – the UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights. Representatives of the European Union will be attending the opening and closing session, but will not participating in discussions on the content of the treaty text. Why this abstention when we are talking about protecting people's rights against damaging corporations, about giving victims of corporate abuse access to justice?
Opinion piece by Neelanjana Mukhia, head of global engagement at ActionAid International, and Paul de Clerck, coordinator of the economic justice programme at Friends of the Earth Europe, published in Euronews
Hambach Forest in Germany's Rhineland is 10,000 years old. But it is under massive threat from German energy giant RWE, which wants to destroy the last remaining part of the forest to mine for coal.
Norway is famous for its rich, untouched nature – and for its fish. Shockingly, the Norwegian government has put both at stake with a controversial decision in 2015 to permit dumping of vast amounts of mine waste in the pristine Førdefjord.
Friends of the Earth Netherlands announced today that they will take Shell to court if it does not act on demands to stop its destruction of the climate.
The Friends of the Earth Netherlands case is the first climate lawsuit demanding a fossil fuel company acts on climate change, rather than seeking compensation. This ground-breaking case, if successful, would significantly limit Shell's investments in oil and gas globally by forcing them to comply with climate targets.
Today, the UN Human Rights Council discussed the report by the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) [1] regarding a binding treaty on business and human rights. Civil society organisations and countries, including the EU, supported the presentation and called for the continuation of the process. This means the 4th session of the IGWG will take place in October, as scheduled.
Friends of the Earth Europe, ActionAid and Global Witness have welcomed the EU's latest action on sustainable finance, but warned that tougher action is needed to ensure that Europe's financial sector includes robust regulatory safeguards.
***Update 18 April: The Milan court hearing scheduled today on the Nigerian Ikebiri community's case against oil giant ENI/NAOC has been postponed as, both parties sought the court's permission to suspend the case to allow them to explore further the possibility of an out-of-court settlement that could end the conflict. We expect that the company will now offer adequate compensation and clean up according to the community's legitimate grievance. The court has agreed to set the next hearing for October 23, 2018.***