"The Case for Change: Why human rights defenders need a UK law on mandatory due diligence", 25 November 2024

Around the world human rights and the environment are suffering at the hands of business operations linked to UK companies....

Those standing up to corporate abuse often pay the ultimate price. Between 2015 and 2023, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre documented 209 attacks on human rights defenders connected to UK companies, with 30 activists murdered....

This report details six case studies from Colombia, Honduras, Indonesia and Mexico. Each documents human rights and environmental violations connected to business operations with UK links. In each of the cases, those who spoke out were attacked. In each case, accountability for these crimes is sorely absent...

The case for change – and for the UK to introduce a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, making it mandatory for businesses to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence – is clear...

Whether Indigenous leaders, trade unionists or environmental activists, human rights defenders are the agents for change in their communities who provide life-changing support for thousands of individuals...

Over 150 companies and investors, as well as a wide range of Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, have joined the 39 civil society organisations calling for the Act...

A new UK law must ensure that businesses have a duty to prevent human rights and environmental harm in their investments, operations and supply chains, with civil and criminal penalties where a failure to do so is proven.