"EC urged to keep company "red tape" over human rights concerns", 22 Oct 2014

The European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) published its report just weeks after the new European Commission announced it was hell-bent on slashing regulatory burdens for business over the next five years. Among the myriad claims are allegations that European banks financed projects which led to large-scale deforestation in Indonesia, local communities were forcibly evicted without compensation to make way for mining operations in Colombia and aggressive buying practices contributed to serious health and safety breaches in Bangladeshi garment factories, leading to the deaths of workers...The report finds that 43 out of 84 companies listed on the UK's FTSE 100 were named in reports on allegations of human rights issues in the last ten years; in Germany, 23 of the companies listed on the DAX 30 index were identified and in France, 24 out of 37 companies on the CAC 40 index...Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, EU states and the European Union have an internationally recognised duty to protect against human right abuses by companies, including in their activities abroad.