...The [parliamentary joint committee on human rights] report...will make awkward reading for the government and for many corporations based in the UK. Most importantly, the committee has come out in support of a new commission to crack down on British companies' continuing human rights violations and to make up for the government's failure to hold those companies to account...Evidence published by the committee included allegations of involvement in serious human rights abuses by Anglo American, Rio Tinto, BP and many other "household names"...The committee also highlighted the Labour government's failure to recognise the work being done at the United Nations to tackle human rights violations by multinational companies [by Prof John Ruggie, the UN special representative]...The...report paid particular attention to the government's failure to regulate Britain's numerous private military and security companies...