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...

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 | Commentary

Commentary 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...

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...

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 | Commentary

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 | Commentary

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...

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...

Taxing Human Rights?

"The governments of developing countries urgently need to increase their tax bases so that public services - key to fulfilling basic rights and tackling poverty - are available for all. The taxes levied on multinational corporations operating in...

01 May 2013 | Commentary

Commentary by Rachel Noble

Another Factory Tragedy - How Will the Bangladesh and the World React?

This week another disaster struck Bangladesh's garment export sector. Over 250 workers – mainly women – died in the collapse of a building that housed four garment factories in Dhaka. The death toll is likely to mount as rescue work continues.

Last...

Taking Stock of Business and Human Rights in the United States: Reflections on visit of UN Working Group

This week, members of the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations are making an official visit to the United States (US) as part of the Group’s mandate to promote the effective implementation of the UN...

ICT sector transparency reports: How do they help civil society defend freedom of expression

Microsoft is the latest company in the ICT sector to publish a report showing how it complies with requests it receives from law enforcement agencies worldwide to release user data. These are known as ‘transparency reports’ and Microsoft is among...