In September 2010, the Canterbury earthquake struck the South Island of New Zealand with a magnitude of 7.1. The aftershock was centred close to the city of Christchurch, and resulted in the deaths 185 people as well as in widespread damage to houses and other properties. In the years following the eartquakes, Canterbury residents filed over 70 individual complaints, with the common allegations being the failure of insurance companies to resolve claims more than three years after the earthquakes, and construction firms not starting, completing or inadequately repairing earthquake damaged homes. Residents also founded the Wider Earthquake Community Action Network (WeCAN) to file human rights claims under the OECD guidelines against five insurance and construction companies operating in Canterbury. According to Steve Patterson who is leading the litigation on behalf of WeCAN, the claims aim "to hold companies accountable for their conduct or complicity, in causing, exacerbating or contributing to human rights violations in the Canterbury rebuild". The claims allege that the inadequate response by those companies are contributing to the violations of residents' rights to health and adequate housing. WeCAN also filed OECD compliants against two government entities dealing with eartquake reconstruction, but OECD New Zealand ruled that such claims cannot be considered under its guidelines, because they are state entities.

We invited the following companies to respond to the allegations filed under the OECD guidelines: 

• Arrow International Group responded  
• Fletcher Construction responded
• IAG New Zealand did not respond
• Tower Insurance responded
• Vero Insurance New Zealand did not respond 

We also invited the following government entities to respond: 

• Earthquake Commission responded 
• Southern Response Eartquake Services did not respond