Commentary

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A Letter from the UK: Our Surveillance Debate

This commentary was originally published by the Center for Global Communication Studies

I was recently invited to the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania to present IHRB’s Digital Dangers project on the ICT sector...

27 November 2013

By Lucy Purdon, Policy Officer, Privacy International

“Bittersweet Harvest” in Cambodia – A cautionary tale for Myanmar

In June of this year the European Union (EU) reinstated Myanmar’s access to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which provides for duty and quota-free exports to EU countries under the “Everything But Arms” programme, raising hopes for...

15 November 2013

By Donna Guest, Independent Researcher; Research Fellow, IHRB

Beyond the Guiding Principles? Examining new calls for a legally binding instrument on business and human rights

In the two years since the UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (the UNGPs), which operationalized the 2008 “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework (the UN Framework), questions about the...

15 October 2013

By Peter Muchlinski

How the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises Relate to Investors

This op-Ed was originally published on ResponsibleInvestor.com.

"The underlying tenet of the UN Guiding Principles and the OECD Guidelines is that all businesses, including and especially state-owned enterprises, have a responsibility to respect...

07 October 2013

By Margaret Wachenfeld, IHRB Senior Research Fellow, Managing Director, Themis Research

Responsible Business in Myanmar: Getting down to the grassroots?

Protests against large industry projects are becoming common in Myanmar. This month villagers are protesting against a Thai company’s inadequate compensation measures for the land it acquired during the 2010 construction of a road to Dawei in...

30 September 2013

By Donna Guest, Independent Researcher; Research Fellow, IHRB

A tribute to Chris Avery

As the opening session of the first annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva last December ended, I paused near the entrance of the main hall, waiting for colleagues. Standing beside me was my friend Chris Avery, the founding director...

16 September 2013

Making Public-Private Partnerships Work

This op-ed was originally published on Thomson Reuters Foundation News channel trust.org.

A full agenda awaits business executives, government officials and civil society representatives attending next week’s U.N. Global Compact leaders summit in...

11 September 2013

By John Ruggie, Patron Emeritus, IHRB; Author, UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights

Kenya’s Emerging Natural Resources Sector: Getting it Right

Kenya is the latest country to discover oil and gas reserves with potential for commercial production. Interestingly, Kenya has been exploring for oil since the 1950’s but strong interest only took hold around 2000 after the completion of a national...

05 September 2013

UK Government prepares to launch National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights

On 4 September, the UK Government will launch its much-anticipated National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights. It is an important landmark - greater UK policy coherence is important for furthering the protection of human rights.

The decision...

02 September 2013

By John Morrison, Chief Executive, IHRB

EU key to further progress on conflict minerals

The ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the deadliest since World War II. Over five million lives have been lost and ongoing violence is currently responsible for an estimated 1,100 rapes per month.

It is widely accepted...

22 August 2013

By Margot Wallström, Chair, International Advisory Council, IHRB; former Swedish Foreign Minister

Two Elephants in the Indian CSR Room: time to focus on business impacts and state duties

As the Indian Nobel Laureate for literature, the poet Rabindranath Tagore writes in Stray Birds - “He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good.” The new Companies Bill in India fails to heed this lesson. Equally important, it fails to see...

20 August 2013

By Mark Hodge

Governments Must Do More To Tackle Threatening Behaviour Online

The question of how to regulate certain forms of harmful speech in the digital realm without restricting legitimate speech and debate is an on-going controversy that affects every country in the world differently.

What appears to be a global...

02 August 2013

By Lucy Purdon, Policy Officer, Privacy International

Freedom Online, Tunisia: Revolution and Revelations

The third Freedom Online conference held recently in Tunisia’s capital city, Tunis, was dominated not by discussion of Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, when the Internet contributed to bringing about regime change and sparked the Arab Spring, but instead...

15 July 2013

By Lucy Purdon, Policy Officer, Privacy International

Society has Evolved regarding Same-Sex Equality, Now It’s Time for Business to Do the Same

Last week, the United States Supreme Court ruled, by a majority of 5-4, that the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 was unconstitutional. That law stipulated that the state would recognize a union as “marriage” only if it is between a man and a woman....

04 July 2013

By John Morrison, Chief Executive, IHRB

Telenor and Ooredoo enter Myanmar

When my colleagues went to Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon in March last year, they found that their smartphones were useless there, since the local telecom operators did not have any arrangement with international carriers. As a result, they...

27 June 2013

By Lucy Purdon, Policy Officer, Privacy International

From Principles to Practice: three new guides support three sectors in respecting human rights

With the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights just passing their second birthday, it is a fitting time for the emergence of more detailed guidance to encourage their implementation.

As a contribution to this objective, last week the...

26 June 2013

By Margaret Wachenfeld, IHRB Senior Research Fellow, Managing Director, Themis Research

Big Data, Big Government, Big Companies: NSA data gathering raises new questions about corporate responsibility

While Microsoft, Google and Twitter publish transparency reports which show the number of worldwide government requests they receive for user information and content takedown and whether and how they comply, they now admit that those reports do not...

12 June 2013

Taking Stock: The business & human rights agenda is gaining ground but needs the UN to lead

Two years have passed since the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously endorsed Guiding Principles for implementation of the UN Protect, Respect and Remedy framework on business and human rights – now commonly referred to as the UN Guiding...

10 June 2013

Bangladesh: Society of Fabric

This article was originally published by EthicalCorp.com.

Tragedy in a garment factory has brought new urgency to resolving long-standing failings in a sector crucial to Bangladesh’s economy

The collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, in which more...

03 June 2013

By Salil Tripathi, Senior Advisor, Global Issues, IHRB

Surveilling the Stockholm Internet Forum 2013

Are liberty and security contradictory terms, or can they coexist? Was Benjamin Franklin right when he said, back in 1775: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety”? Can...

28 May 2013

By Lucy Purdon, Policy Officer, Privacy International