Doing Business Right – Monthly Report – November 2018 - By Shamistha Selvaratnam

Editor’s note: Shamistha Selvaratnam is a LLM Candidate of the Advanced Masters of European and International Human Rights Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands and an intern with the Doing Business Right project. Prior to commencing the LLM, she worked as a business and human rights solicitor in Australia where she specialised in promoting business respect for human rights through engagement with policy, law and practice.

 

Introduction

This report compiles all relevant news, events and materials on Doing Business Right based on the coverage provided on our twitter feed @DoinBizRight and on various websites. You are invited to contribute to this compilation via the comments section below, feel free to add links to important cases, documents and articles we may have overlooked.

The Headlines

CHRB

On 12 November 2018, the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark released the results of its 2018 ranking of 101 companies operating in the apparel, agricultural products and extractives industries. The results show that implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in these sectors is still weak (following the 2017 results) with the average overall score for 2018 being 27% (an increase of 9 percentage points from last year), demonstrating a lack of respect for human rights. The Report identifies that due diligence is a key weakness of the companies that were reviewed, with 40% of companies scoring no points with respect to the due diligence indicator. Other issues identified were the lack of a strong commitment to ensuring that there are ‘living wages’ paid to those working in company operations and supply chains and the failure to meet expectations with respect to preventing child labour in supply chains. Read the 2018 Key Findings Report here.

Australian MSA passes both houses of Parliament

On 29 November 2018, the Modern Slavery Bill 2018 (Cth) passed both houses of the Australian Parliament. Once enacted, the Act will require Australian entities and entities carrying on a business in Australia that have a consolidated revenue of at least $100 million to prepare a Modern Slavery Statement covering mandatory criteria. Criteria that such entities will have to report on include the risks of modern slavery practices in their operations and supply chains and the actions they take to assess and address those risks, including due diligence and remediation processes. It is likely that the Act will come into effect on 1 January 2019 and accordingly the first Modern Slavery Statements will be due by 1 January 2021.

UN and International organisations publications and statements

NGO and Law Firm publications and statements

In Court

In the News 

Speeches, Videos, Podcasts and Interviews

Academic Materials

Blogs           

Asser Institute Doing Business Right Blog

Others

Call for Papers and Abstracts

Upcoming Events

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