Editor's Note: Catherine Dunmore is an experienced international lawyer who practised international arbitration for multinational law firms in London and Paris. She recently received her LL.M. from the University of Toronto and her main fields of interest include international criminal law and human rights. Since October 2017, she is part of the team of the Doing Business Right project at the Asser Institute.
Background
At the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights from 27-29 November 2017 in Geneva, discussions focused on the central theme of Realizing Access to Effective Remedy. With an increasing focus on this third pillar of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a working group of international law, human rights and conflict management specialists (Claes Cronstedt, Jan Eijsbouts, Adrienne Margolis, Steven Ratner, Martijn Scheltema and Robert C. Thompson) has spent several years exploring the use of arbitration to resolve business and human rights disputes. This culminated in the publication on 13 February 2017 of a proposal for International Business and Human Rights Arbitration. On 17 August 2017, a follow-up Questions and Answers document was published by the working group to address the principal questions raised about the proposal during the three-year consultation with stakeholders. Now, a drafting team is being assembled, chaired by Bruno Simma, to prepare a set of rules designed specifically for international business and human rights arbitration (the Hague International Business and Human Rights Arbitration Rules) in consultation with a wide range of business and human rights stakeholders. Once drafted, the rules will be offered to the Permanent Court of Arbitration and other international arbitration institutions and could be used in arbitration proceedings managed by parties on an ad hoc basis.
Introduction
Part 1 of this three-part blog series gave an overview introduction to the proposal for international business and human rights arbitration. Part 2 focused on the potential advantages of using international arbitration to resolve such disputes, as well as the substantial challenges the proposal will face in practice. This Part 3 now provides a case study of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh’s binding arbitration process. More particularly, it will provide (1) a brief background to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, as well as (2) an analysis of its binding arbitration process, before (3) discussing the arbitrations brought by IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union against two global fashion brands under the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. More...
Editor's Note: Catherine
Dunmore is an experienced international lawyer who practised international
arbitration for multinational law firms in London and Paris. She recently
received her LL.M. from the University of Toronto and her main fields of
interest include international criminal law and human rights. Since October
2017, she is part of the team of the Doing Business Right project at the Asser Institute.
Background
At the United Nations
Forum on Business and Human Rights from 27-29 November 2017 in
Geneva, discussions focused on the central theme of Realizing Access
to Effective Remedy. With an increasing focus on this third pillar
of the United Nations
Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a working group of
international law, human rights and conflict management specialists (Claes Cronstedt, Jan Eijsbouts,
Adrienne Margolis, Steven Ratner,
Martijn
Scheltema and Robert C.
Thompson) has spent several years exploring the use of arbitration
to resolve business and human rights disputes. This culminated in the
publication on 13 February 2017 of a proposal for International Business and Human
Rights Arbitration. On 17 August 2017, a follow-up Questions and Answers
document was published by the working group to address the principal questions
raised about the proposal during the three-year consultation with stakeholders.
Now, a drafting team
is being assembled, chaired by Bruno Simma,
to prepare a set of rules designed specifically for international business and
human rights arbitration (the
Hague International Business and Human Rights Arbitration
Rules) in consultation with a wide range of business and human
rights stakeholders. Once
drafted, the rules will be offered to the Permanent Court
of Arbitration and
other international arbitration institutions and could be used in arbitration
proceedings managed by parties on an ad
hoc basis.
Introduction
Part 1
of this three-part blog series gave an overview introduction to the proposal
for international business and human rights arbitration. This Part 2 focuses on
(1) the potential advantages of
using international arbitration to resolve such disputes, as well as (2) the substantial challenges the
proposal will face in practice. Part 3 will then provide a case study of the
Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh’s binding arbitration process. More...
Editor's Note: Catherine Dunmore is an experienced international lawyer who practised international arbitration for multinational law firms in London and Paris. She recently received her LL.M. from the University of Toronto and her main fields of interest include international criminal law and human rights. Since October 2017, she is part of the team of the Doing Business Right project at the Asser Institute.
Background
At the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights from 27-29 November 2017 in Geneva, discussions focused on the central theme of Realizing Access to Effective Remedy. With an increasing focus on this third pillar of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a working group of international law, human rights and conflict management specialists (Claes Cronstedt, Jan Eijsbouts, Adrienne Margolis, Steven Ratner, Martijn Scheltema and Robert C. Thompson) has spent several years exploring the use of arbitration to resolve business and human rights disputes. This culminated in the publication on 13 February 2017 of a proposal for International Business and Human Rights Arbitration. On 17 August 2017, a follow-up Questions and Answers document was published by the working group to address the principal questions raised about the proposal during the three-year consultation with stakeholders. Now, a drafting team is being assembled, chaired by Bruno Simma, to prepare a set of rules designed specifically for international business and human rights arbitration (the Hague International Business and Human Rights Arbitration Rules) in consultation with a wide range of business and human rights stakeholders. Once drafted, the rules will be offered to the Permanent Court of Arbitration and other international arbitration institutions and could be used in arbitration proceedings managed by parties on an ad hoc basis.
Introduction
Part 1 of this three-part blog series will give an overview introduction to the proposal for international business and human rights arbitration. It will discuss particularly (1) considerations for the drafters of new arbitration rules for business and human rights disputes. Part 2 will focus on the potential advantages of using international arbitration to resolve such disputes, as well as the substantial challenges the proposal will face in practice. Part 3 will then provide a case study of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh’s binding arbitration process. More...
Editor's Note: Catherine Dunmore is
an experienced international lawyer who practised international arbitration for
multinational law firms in London and Paris. She recently received her LL.M.
from the University of Toronto and her main fields of interest include international
criminal law and human rights. Since October 2017, she is part of the team of
the Doing Business Right project at
the Asser Institute.
Introduction
This report compiles all relevant
news, events and materials on Doing Business Right based on the daily coverage
provided on our twitter feed @DoinBizRight. You are invited to complete this
survey via the comments section below, feel free to add links to important
cases, documents and articles we might have overlooked. More...
Editor’s Note: Elisa Chiaro is a legal consultant focussing
on Business and Human Rights and International Criminal Law. In 2016 she
completed an LL.M. at SOAS, University of London. Before that she worked for
five years as international corporate lawyer both in Italy and UK. She is
admitted to the Bar in Italy.
1.
Introduction
In current
discourse, the most pressing issues concerning human rights and business are often
associated with the developing countries to which manufacturing is outsourced.
However, the “western world” also faces new challenges as far as workers’
rights are concerned.
It is cheap and convenient for people to book a car ride or
order their favourite takeaway meal at a few swipes of their smartphone. App-based
service companies are thus very popular among consumers – and are consequently
flourishing. Conversely, some doubts have been cast on the fairness of the working
conditions of people contracted by these companies. A central issue in this
respect relates to the status of their workers, who on paper are self-employed,
but in reality are subject to the control of the company, a condition which
clashes with being independent. This post aims firstly to analyse the labour conditions
of gig economy workers in Europe, with a focus on some of the main service platforms,
namely Uber, Deliveroo, Foodora, and Hermes Parcels: the majority of these
companies, Uber in particular, are transnational, operating in many national
markets and adopting the same business model based on flexible work and lack of
security for workers in each market. Secondly, it will scrutinise how National
and European institutions and courts are augmenting gig economy workers’
conditions for the better. The issue is crucial in the UK, especially following
September’s decision by Transport of London (“TFL”) to reject Uber’s
application for a new London license, but legal disputes have also started in
other countries (in, among others, the UK, Italy and the USA). The UK
Parliament is also discussing the matter, and the EU Commission has started a
round table with trade unions and employers to find new solutions to address the
issue. More...
Editor's note: This report compiles all relevant
news, events and materials on transnational business regulation based on the
daily coverage provided on our twitter feed @DoinBizRight. You are invited to complete this survey via the comments
section below, feel free to add links to important cases, documents and
articles we might have overlooked. More...