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The Labor & Employment Standards Library (LESLi) is a service recently launched by STR Responsible Sourcing that makes legal research on labor related human rights issues much easier. LESLi provides access to worker welfare related laws for over 150 countries, translated into English and categorized within a responsible sourcing scope to make searches user-friendly. Covering national child labor and forced labor laws, working hours and compensation laws, the library is truly a unique online resource. It offers many additional capabilities including regional minimum wages and tools to make country-to-country law comparisons at a click.
Visit our site http://lesli.strrs.com/ and sign up for a free trial to see how it works.
If you’re interested in more details and substantial discounts, Emily Brennan can guide you through a quick webinar of the tool advantages.
This guide provides advice and ideas on how activists and campaigners can use the Companies Act to help improve the social and environmental performance of companies. Available free here
Hannah Ellis, Coordinator, The Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition
Any discussion about regulatory reform needs a regulatory context. This discussion paper examines options for future domestic law reform to curb alleged corporate abuse in other countries, against the background of eight case studies provided by CORE members. Available here
Hannah Ellis, Coordinator, The Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition
This report, Principles and Pathways is a compilation of over five years work undertaken by The European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) led by the excellent talent of Filip Gregor. It is an essential read for anyone interested in legislative opportunities at an EU level and is available here
Hannah Ellis, Coordinator, The Corporate Responsibilitiy (CORE) Coalition
There are several worthwhile resources, tools and publications out there on using extraterritorial avenues to hold companies to account for human rights. Here are just a few to start which I have found most useful. Please do add to this list with others.
Guides
Corporate Accountability for Human Rights Abuses: A Guide for Victims and NGOs on Recourse Mechanisms, July 2010
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)’s flagship guide for victims and NGOs on recourse mechanisms in cases of corporate-related human rights violations. It is quite comprehensive on different judicial and non-judicial mechanisms (ILO, UN, IFIs, CSR initiatives, national and regional courts, etc.) with relevant sections on extraterritorial application. An indispensable reference for corporate accountability advocates.
Articles and publications
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction as a tool for improving the Human Rights Accountability of Transnational Corporations [PDF] - background paper for Brussels seminar prepared by Prof. Olivier de Schutter, Catholic Univ. of Louvain & College of Europe, Dec 2006
The Right to Food: Holding Global Actors Accountable Under International Law, Smita Narula, CHRGJ Working Papers, 2006
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction: Lessons for the Business and Human Rights Sphere from Six Regulatory Areas [PDF], Dr. Jennifer Zerk, report for Harvard Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, to help inform mandate of Special Representative Ruggie, Jun 2010
Other Sources
The Business and Human Rights Resource Center—itself a key resource in the field—has a page devoted exclusively to extraterritorial jurisdiction here. Several of the cases in their Legal Accountability Portal also deal with extraterritorial issues.
Extraterritorial Obligations Consortium—The ETO Consortium is a network of currently some 30 NGOs, university institutes and individuals from different parts of the world who prepare a "document of principles" on extraterritorial states obligations for economic, social and cultural rights. The Consortium will soon be releasing a book analyzing several concrete cases using the lens of extraterritorial human rights obligations.
The Inter American Court for Human Rights (IACHR) published last week a report on INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' RIGHTS OVER THEIR ANCESTRAL LANDS here is the link
http://cidh.org/Comunicados/English/2011/13-11eng.htmv
It is an overview of state's obligations. It has several recommendations regarding consultations . Very useful for anybody working in Latin America
I wanted a share a few resources for businesses wanting to take a more proactive approach to incorporating human rights standards in their business operations:
A Guide for Integrating Human Rights into Business management - The Guide for Integrating Human Rights into Business Management is an online tool produced jointly by the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights (BLIHR), the UN Global Compact and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). It offers practical guidance to companies wanting to take a proactive approach to human rights within their business operations and is of use primarily to business leaders and managers in large and medium-sized enterprises, private and state-owned, who would like to develop their understanding of human rights in business practice.
Human rights and business - The Human Rights and Business Project researches and releases publications that clarify the obligation of companies. Some of these publications are created specifically for companies, and present strategies for managing risks in their specific operational environment. Every year the Human Rights and Business Project publishes two Country Risk Assessments summarizing the human rights risks to business in the world’s most relevant emerging economies (China, Kenya, Russia, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Brazil, India, Tanzania, Oman, Algeria and others).
Kristin mentioned above the Human Rights and Business section of the Danish institute for Human Rights. They have been doing great work in the area of business compliance of human rights standards for quite some time.
The New Tactics project has a great tactical notebook developed by the Danish Institute, Human Rights and the Corporation: The development of the Human Rights Compliance Assessment, about the PROCESS by which they developed the assessment tool, the tool has been recently updated and available on their website.
Some links that may be useful to help end human trafficking:
http://ombamltine.blogspot.com/2011/02/end-human-trafficking-links.html
For those on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/#!/list/rlanzara/stop-human-trafficking-6
There are a few other resources and tools available online regarding extraterritorial jurisdiction and corporate legal accountability.
First, REDRESS and FIDH published a paper in December 2010: Extraterritorial Jurisdiction in the European Union – A Study of the Laws and Practice in the 27 Member States of the European Union. The paper provides a thorough overview of the state of extraterritorial jurisdiction in the EU, but it is not specifically aimed at corporate accountability.
Second, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) published a three-volume report: Report of the ICJ Expert Legal Panel on Corporate Complicity in International Crimes in October 2008. Volume 3 is particularly relevant to this online dialogue as it addresses civil remedies – Section 4 looks at legal procedure and company law rules. This report is available online in English, French and Spanish.
Third, the ICJ has also published country-specific reports regarding access to justice for human rights abuses involving corporations. The reports from the following countries address extraterritorial jurisdiction: Netherlands, Poland, and South Africa.
Sif Thorgeirsson
Manager, Corporate Legal Accountability Project
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre