Planet Over Profit Day of Action: Meeting with Shockat Adam

Yesterday was the national Day of Action on the Planet Over Profit campaign, when Friends of the Earth groups across the countries met their local MPs to call for a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act. The new law would ensure that UK companies are held responsible for environmental harm and human rights abuses in their supply chains.  

We met Shockat Adam, the MP for Leicester South, at his constituency office to hand in our petition and postcards from members of the public calling for a new law. We were joined by representatives of 15 local organisations who have signed an open letter calling for a new law, including Leicester Quakers, Global Justice Leicester, Stoneygate Baptist Church, Unite the Union Community Branch, The Race Equality Centre and Pioneer Parishes.  

Shockat Adam has already signed the Good Business Matters pledge, which so far has the backing of more than 80 MPs and peers and 50 high profile UK businesses, including John Lewis, Sainsbury’s and Aviva. We asked him to act on his pledge and back the campaign for a new law to hold UK companies to account for harm to people and the environment.  

The petition, postcards and open letter demonstrate the strength of local support for a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act (BHREA). Under the new legislation, UK companies would be held legally responsible for preventing harm to people and the planet in their supply chains, no matter where they operate – whether here in the UK or overseas.   

Through the materials they source to make their products, too many UK companies are fuelling environmental damage and endangering communities around the globe. In parts of South East Asia and South America, forests are being cleared, rivers polluted and habitats destroyed as highly sought-after commodities like palm oil, soy and timber are cultivated with little regard for their environmental and social impact. 

Products linked to these abuses then end up on the UK market – whether it’s the food we buy at the supermarket, the cosmetics on our bathroom shelf or the way we furnish our homes.   

Meanwhile, Indigenous communities that depend on and protect these precious ecosystems are being forced from their lands, threatened with violence and denied access to the natural resources they rely on. The new law would provide communities on the front lines of harm a legal route to justice when their rights are violated.  

According to polling by YouGov for the Corporate Justice Coalition , a whopping 80% of people support the demand for a new law to tackle harm to people and the environment. There is overwhelming public support for the government to act. 

Shockat Adam was invited to show his support for the campaign by taking a photo with the group, holding a placard backing the new law.   

 

It’s unthinkable that so many of the products we buy could be linked to horrific environmental and human rights abuses, and that UK companies are complicit. Most people do not want to buy something that is causing harm in another country, but consumers cannot trace what damage has been done in a supply chain. It’s high time businesses were held accountable for their harmful practices here at home and overseas – it couldn’t be clearer that the public wants the government to act.  

We’re really pleased that Shockat Adam is supporting the growing calls for a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, which would protect people and planet from harm at the hands of UK companies and give affected communities a legal route to justice. We hope that the other MPs representing the people of Leicester and Leicestershire will support this vital campaign.