Business Advocacy

Violence and threats against environmental defenders often can be traced back to actors in the private sector, particularly mining companies, agribusinesses, and palm oil companies, renewable energy projects, and other land-intensive industries. Part of the work of the Law & Advocacy working group of ALLIED is to coordinate among organizations and liaise with other coalitions that are working to improve business policies, practices, and interactions with defenders to help mitigate the risks, threats, and violence that defenders face due to the actions or inactions of companies and investors. We also engage with the UN and relevant policymakers in governments, to promote the inclusion of safeguards for defenders in key pieces of legislation on business and human rights, such as EU’s Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative, including mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence.

Hearing the Human report

The EU’s Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative, including mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence, offers an opportunity to prioritise environmental protection, human rights and long-term business sustainability, including the safety of human rights defenders.

You can learn more about the EU’s Sustainable Corporate Governance Initiative here, and you can read our report and recommendations to the European Commission, EU Parliament (EP) & Council of the EU on how this legislation can keep HRDs safe here. The report was authored by ALLIED members Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Front Line Defenders, ProDESC and Indigenous Peoples Rights International, and is based on consultations with 60+ HRDs.

Watch the launch event of the report at the Fundamental Rights Forum 2021 on the right!

43 businesses support stakeholder engagement in mandatory due diligence

Support for meaningful and safe stakeholder engagement as a central aspect of the EU framework on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence

ALLIED Law and Advocacy Working Group with the Investor Alliance on Human Rights supported a statement in which over 45 investors and companies said they “believe meaningful engagement with rightsholders and civil society, including human rights defenders, that is gender-sensitive and intersectional, is critical to a due diligence process that effectively identifies human rights impacts and responds to their concerns. For Indigenous Peoples, meaningful engagement will also mean full respect of the principle and process of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC). We believe it should be prioritized in the upcoming legislation. We recognize that for stakeholder engagement to be meaningful, it must inform all stages of due diligence, starting with the risk identification and analysis. It must also be safe, so that defenders, their communities, and other rightsholders speaking out about adverse corporate impacts can do so without suffering or fearing retaliation”. Download the full statement here.

“Business enterprises must be obliged to consult with defenders under the EU [Sustainable Corporate Governance] initiative. Now is the time for the EU to give new life to its founding principles by delivering a strong law that could help reduce the number of lives lost in defence of human rights.”

– Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders

“Strengthening protection of HRDs is a key priority for the next decade of the business and human rights agenda. One of the best ways of moving forward is mandatory environmental and human rights due diligence, that serves as a vehicle to safeguard HRDs through requirements to consult with them, as well as through ensuring proper access to effective remedy as part of due diligence laws.”

– Anita Ramasastry, UN Working Group on Business & Human Rights

Searching for Common Ground

1

Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence & stakeholder engagement roundtable

2

Environmental defenders & just transition roundtable

3

Protecting defenders of the Amazon roundtable

4

Business support in individual cases of attacks on HRDs

5

Brazilian defenders & investors meet

How we work

Better data

on attacks

can save
defenders’

lives.

Who

Contact us

If you want to find out how to join the group, you can reach us at:

zbona@business-humanrights.org