July 2017, Thailand: The world's biggest shrimp farmer hosted a meeting with international supermarket chains and NGOs to address the problem of forced labour, human trafficking and modern slavery practices in the supply chain. Their aim was to set up an industry action group to establish a global benchmark for sustainable shrimp feed production and help the Thai government to create a strategy to address the problems in the seafood supply chain. This initiative successfully led to the launch of an industry-wide task force that developed a strategy for tracking fishing vessels and tracing fish. More...

May 2011, Ghana: Police working with Interpol carried out an operation in the Lake Volta area to rescue children who were believed to have been trafficked to the area to work in the fishing industry. They targeted communities thought to be using illegal child labour and rescued 116 children aged between 5 and 17. They arrested 28 people who were later convicted of exposing children to danger and engaging minors in hazardous activities. The children were taken into care following the operation. Interpol has coordinated similar operations in Cote d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Gabon, which have led to the rescue of hundreds of children. The state also collaborated with international institutions such as the IOM, the OHCHR and non-governmental organizations to provide longer-term solutions based on poverty alleviation and economic empowerment strategies. More...

May 2018, India: On the 100th day of the protest movement against a British-owned cooper smelting facility in a Southern Indian state, paramilitary forces were deployed against the demonstrators and 13 people were killed by the police. The activists have been advocating for 22 years for the closing of the plant, claiming that it had been responsible for high cancer rates, respiratory and skin problems as well as iron-polluted water in the surrounding villages. In May 2018, a state government decision ruled in favor of the closing of the copper smelting facility. More...

August 2017, Kenya: The Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) sector provides 12-15% of the world’s gold supply. It represents 90% of the global gold mining workforce, employing around 10 to 15 million people that indirectly support the livelihood of more than 100 million people. UN Environment has raised concerns about the socio-environmental impacts of this extractive industry, specifically on the release of mercury to the environment, around 1,400 tons every year. The growing informal gold mining business in Western Kenya Kakamega county has been one of the focus of the UN body work, posing particular threats to the mine workers’ rights and safety. Reports have highlighted the dangerous practices at every stage of the extractive process (lack of safe protections as gloves) and the great levels of pollution (mercury due to open burning techniques, noise from rock crushers) imputable to agenda-setting, limited financial support, a global lack of regulation and a limited access to data. UN Environment initiative and international conventions such as the 2017 International Minamata Convention are now engaged on a global scale in reducing anthropogenic mercury release, growing awareness and are calling for greater regulation of the artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector. More...

August 2014, China: A major IT manufacture banned in 2014 two hazardous chemicals from its supply chain. One (benzene) is carcinogenic and the other (n-hexane) can cause nerve damage. They had been used for cleaning and de-greasing at its factories. No evidence of harm to workers had been identified. The company was then challenged by NGOs to monitor the implementation of the ban to ensure the safety of its workers. In 2018, their investigations revealed that the chemicals were still used at some early stages of the production and that many other chemicals used were still undisclosed, including noxious ones. These highlighted supply chains and reporting issues as well as the lack of industry-wide standards. More...

April 2011, USA: The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed that manufacturers of PVC plastics should be required to reduce their emissions of vinyl chloride, dioxins and hydrogen chloride. These chemicals are harmful, particularly to children who are known to be more vulnerable than adults to the carcinogenic risk of inhaling vinyl chloride. Every year, PVC plants in the USA emit over 200 tons of vinyl chloride. It has been known for some years that these chemicals are carcinogenic, but the industry's air emissions have continued to be mainly unregulated. More...

July 2014, Peru: Indigenous peoples' organisations formulated a complaint against a regional development bank for violating their rights and for failing to reduce deforestation. Their claim related to the undermining of indigenous peoples’ collective land rights and a failure in the bank’s international duty to conduct prior consultation with indigenous peoples. As of 2016, the organizations had obtained formal agreements on 11 development projects securing their direct involvement in projects’ governance and implementation and the respect of the free, prior and informed consent principle. This principle is entered directly and indirectly in many international standards and regulations such as in the International Labour Organisation Convention 169 to protect indigenous peoples’ rights. More...

April 2014: The Banking Environment Initiative (BEI) & the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF)'s set up a Soft Commodities Compact in 2010. There are now eleven banks signed up to the compact. The aim is to mobilise resources to help achieve zero net deforestation by 2020. Banks have made two commitments: firstly, to finance the transformation of supply chains for palm oil, timber products, soy and beef; secondly, to raise industry-wide banking standards to customers in these sectors to ensure there is compliance with internationally recognised verification processes. A Technical Guidance tool was published in December 2015 to develop the implementation of the Compact. More...

December 2009, Malaysia: Five indigenous communities in Borneo sued the Sarawak state government, demanding land titles for an area of 80,000 hectares, the nullification of unlawfully issued timber and planted-forest licenses and compensation for damage done by logging companies and dam constructions. The formerly nomadic Penan hunted and gathered food from the rainforest for generations until the 1950s, when they decided to settle at their present village locations.

The Penan stated that for over ten years various logging operators have wrongfully trespassed onto their ancestral land with bulldozers, excavators and lorries and have destroyed a substantial area of their forest, fruit trees, crops and cultural heritage, such as graves and historical sites. They also actively protested against the construction of dams, which led to the cancellation of one project plan in 2016. Still twelve on-going projects of dam buildings are threatening the tropical forest and the Penan. Cases of serious limitations on freedom of information and speech have also been reported by civil society. More...

August 2014, Bangladesh: Civil society claimed that exploitation of workers is continuing in garment factories, and that labour rights initiatives focused only on improving the safety of factories and not on the rights of the workers. People who were injured at Rana Plaza received some compensation from the government and from a small number of companies, but many companies have not yet provided compensation. Twenty unsafe factories have been closed but compensation for workers who have lost their jobs as a result are not adequate. NGOs still point out that international garment companies put strong pressure on suppliers to provide goods cheaply, giving rise to concerns that another disaster could happen. Many NGOs have been urging for a transparency pledge, drafted by NGOs and trade organizations, that outlines minimum industry-wide standards for the supply chain and thus contributes to the development of companies’ accountability and enhancement of workers’ rights. In 2018, for instance, Human Rights Now reported that only 17 out of 72 apparel and footwear companies had agreed on initiating a transparency pledge. More...

November 2010, UK: An undercover television reporter, who worked for three months in workshops in Leicester stitching clothing for high street chains, found dirty and dangerous conditions. The investigative reporter found that workers were paid half the minimum wage and worked in cramped and over-heated conditions with unsanitary toilets and a blocked fire exit. Workers were forced to work faster under threat of the sack and there was no drinking water. The reporter was not given training or safety guidance before starting to work and sewing machines were not equipped with appropriate safety guards. A 2015 university study revealed that in addition to the poor workplace conditions and low wages, vulnerable populations as migrant workers and women were particularly threatened. Some initiatives were launched to work with the companies and suppliers to adopt a voluntary approach that would reconcile the growth within this Leicester industry sector and the protection of workers’ rights. More...

May 2017, China: Mega-regional infrastructure investments are a significant milestone for Chinese efforts to encourage trade, investment and economic integration. Based on both overland and maritime networks, this great-scale infrastructure project is expected to involve 65 countries and affect 4.4 billion people, supported by national, regional and international financial institutions. The NGO Human Rights Watch raised concerns in May 2017 around the ‘One Belt, One Road’ project, for which the Ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar in the Xinjiang Province is a strategic center. The NGO has reported that in this province home to 10 million Muslim Uighurs, increase surveillance and repression was exerted to prevent any potential unrest that would slowdown and weaken the project. The increase of spending on security in Xinjiang that reached 30 billion yuan ($4.35 billion) in 2016 has occurred simultaneously with religiously discriminatory measures and deadly repression of ethnic riots. Simultaneously, the UN OHCHR released a study on ‘the Human Rights Impacts and Implications of Mega-Infrastructure Investment’, on the sectors’ impacts, governance challenges, international frameworks and guidance, with particular references to the Chinese regional master plans. More...

August 2014, Myanmar: The Japanese International Co-operation Agency has issued a proposal for infrastructure development in Karen and Mon states, areas badly damaged by civil war with many refugee communities. The Karen Peace Support Network highlighted the plan was premature and flawed, and that it may make conflict in the region worse. They advocated that exploitation of local natural resources and disrespect for land rights were key causes of conflict in the area and that full consultation with local people was required prior to the development project. More...

May 2011, China: The Shenzhen government was under pressure to ensure that the infrastructure for the University Games in August, the biggest sporting event in the city's history, was finished on time, threatening migrant workers’ rights. Under societal pressure, the government has withdrawn regulations that threatened to criminalize migrant worker protests demanding the payment of wage arrears. The municipal trade union federation had further announced plans to sign collective wage agreements at 550 enterprises this year, part of a five-year plan to reduce wage inequality and allow millions of migrant workers to share in the benefits of economic development. More...

August 2014, South Africa: An appeal has been lodged against a government decision to allow development of one of the world's largest platinum mines in Limpopo Province. Concerns have been raised by local community groups about possible pollution of air, water scarcity and acid drainage from the mine. They also believed that the government has overlooked concerns about land ownership and the loss of subsistence land which will lead to a loss of livelihood and food security. Such concerns were supported by local and farming businesses and have extended to many more operating mines in the region as the number of plants continued to increase. More...

May 2011, Democratic Republic of Congo: In 2011, the USA brought in rules requiring US companies to disclose whether certain minerals used in their products could have supported conflict in Congo, with the aim to prevent armed groups from profiting from the sale of tin ore, tungsten, gold and coltan. The OECD, two electronics-industry trade groups and the UN have also developed their own guidelines with DRC and regional mining officials to regulate the trade. As the DRC is facing today an increasing demand for cobalt due to the growth of electric cars and batteries markets and provides more than 60% of the world’s cobalt production, the Parliament adopted changes to its Mining Code in 2018. They include a time reduction of exploitation licenses, greater obligations regarding local processing and local contents, measures on royalty and public/private sharing as well as compliance with the social responsibility actions, in order to limit corruption and conflicts. More...

September 2014, Azerbaijan: The UN Council for Human Rights has called on the government to make the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) accountable to Parliament. SOCAR was to supply gas to much of Europe, via a pipeline through Turkey and the Adriatic Sea. NGOs, such as Global Witness, raised questions about non-transparency around the project. At a global scale, this campaign also contributed to highlighting the remaining gaps in the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) that allowed deals to be conducted without the release of public information and consultation. More...

December 2017, Peru: In 1995, a mid-sized light oil field close to the Ecuadorian border known as Block 64 was established for exploration by an oil and gas exploring company. The federation of the Achuar Nation of Peru, an Amazonian native community, challenged the existence of Block 64 to Court to ask for full recognition of its rights as an indigenous nation and for a collective land title, drawing on the ILO Convention 169 which articulates the mandatory prior consultation of indigenous populations. The Peruvian Court ruled in favor of the Achuar people in December 2017, recognizing their rights to self-determination and collective territory and urged the government to consider the Anchuar Federation as a legal person with corresponding entitled rights to their ancestral territory. More...

February 2014, USA: Millions of gallons of coal ash sludge from a closed power plant spilled into a river in North Carolina. The river provided drinking water to communities in North Carolina and Virginia. The spill was halted, but a major cleanup operation was required. Concerns related to public health as drinking waterways contaminated and the spillage included harmful chemicals such as arsenic. There were also concerns about the impact on wildlife. The utility has apologized for the spill and vowed to clean up any damage. In 2015, state legislators urged the company to close 32 ash ponds in the state by 2029. As a response, the firm established an internal advisory group, allocated more specific funds to develop cleaner coal combustion, ash handling and landfilling activities and has planned to issue engineering reports and documentations to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning the post-removal site control process. More...

May 2011, China: The government has promised to improve disaster prevention mechanisms around the Three Gorges Dam project, as severe drought in central and southern China threatened millions of people. The State Council said the project had played a key role in flood prevention and power generation, but had caused problems to the environment, shipping, agricultural irrigation and water supplies in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Drought has left residents and livestock without drinking water or water to irrigate agricultural land, and dried up rivers across the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The government had also pledged to raise the standard of living for the 1.24 million relocated residents through economic restructuring and infrastructure improvements, as well as ensuring the social security system covers all urban and rural residents by 2020. More...

September 2014, UK: The Equality and Human Rights Commission has suggested that employers in the commercial cleaning sector were not meeting basic responsibilities towards their workers, such as those related to timely payment, paid leave for holidays and sickness, and ensuring grievance processes. The workforce was largely part time and made up of women, senior workers and migrants. From 2015 to 2017, the Commission for Employment and Skills developed a campaign establishing a ‘cleaning task force’ that has provided guidance resources for employers and trade union members such as pocket guides as well as training programs. This task force was composed of both public and private organisations from various geographical backgrounds, including the Latin American Women’s Rights Service. More...

May 2011, China: A four-day strike by truck drivers protesting against higher costs reducing their earnings took place, despite it being weakened by lack of a trade union or any form of collective bargaining. The government announced some concessions, such as requiring lower fees to drivers. Many had remained dissatisfied however and have initiated new strikes advocating for improved working conditions and opposing the rising gas prices and the rise of new services that link suppliers with self-dependent drivers with limited rights protection. Truck drivers remain central for the Chinese economy as they have an essential role in the e-commerce industry chain. More...

July 2015, Lebanon: The Naameh landfill was opened in 1998 as an emergency solution to accommodate solid waste. This dumping area 16km South of Beirut quickly exceeded its capacity and accumulated around 12 million tons of waste in 2014, reaching 20 meters in height. The gazes emanating, the intensification of water pollution as well as the more global issue of open burning waste in Mount Lebanon led to environmental justice conflicts between activists and public entities that conducted to the closing of the Naameh landfill and a generalized waste management crisis in both urban and rural areas. While long-term solutions have not yet been found, the government is now asking private companies operating in the country to cooperate for a reduction of waste production and is calling for investments for waste to energy transformation projects, in order to achieve sustainable long-run waste management results. More...

April 2014, Bangladesh: Four people were killed, and three others were injured when a gas cylinder exploded at a ship-breaking yard in Chittagong. The workers were dismantling a scrap ship. The deaths were due to inhalation of carbon dioxide. Over the next years, there have been 44 deaths at ship-breaking yards in one city and many more people have been injured. In 2016, the Hong Kong International Convention for the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships (a multilateral convention adopted in 2009 and expected to enter into force within the next five to ten years) urged for greater international regulations on amenities, the publication of a list of approved facilities, the mandatory identification and carrying of hazardous material inventory for all new ships. This would also lead to taking a step closer to the 2013 European Union Ship Recycling Regulation. More...

March 2011, India: A radiation scare at a scrap market in Mayapuri, Delhi in which five people were injured was due to disposal of Cobalt-60. NGOs such as Greenpeace advocated for India needing to put in place standards and processes that would ensure proper decontamination, correct and consistent information and safeguarding of people. One year after the incident, shopkeepers in one of India's largest scrap markets claimed that no steps had been taken by the authorities to ensure that such incidents did not take place again. Scrap workers were reported to continue to deal with all kind of waste, including medical and laboratory waste. More...