We held a campaign launch event for our Planet Before Profit campaign, in Leicester’s Town Hall Square, as part of a national launch of this campaign. We are calling for a new law to make it much easier to hold companies accountable for environmental damage and human rights abuses caused by their activities, both directly and within their supply chains. Amongst those attending was Abigail, the Leicester Friends of the Earth orangutan.
Friends of the Earth are part of a coalition of organizations campaigning for a new UK Business Human Rights and Environment Act, which would require companies to exercise “due diligence” in identifying and preventing both environmental damage and human rights abuses in their supply chains. This would include things like deforestation, pollution and climate impacts, and things like land grabbing from indigenous communities and forced labour.
In line with a recommendation by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights the proposed legislation would be based on the UK’s existing Bribery Act. It would require companies and public bodies to carry out thorough checks on their supply chain, to identify risks and establish measures to prevent harm. It would incorporate tough sanctions for failing to do this and allow companies to be held accountable in both civil and criminal courts. It would also give affected communities a right to seek redress and require companies to engage with potentially affected communities.
Malcolm Hunter explains:
“Unrestrained pursuit of profit is driving widespread environmental destruction and human rights abuses world-wide. Many UK companies are contributing towards this, and this proposed legislation is designed to make them act in much more socially responsible ways and allow them to be held to account if they don’t. Many other countries have already introduced similar legislation, or are in the process of doing so, but the UK currently lags behind and needs to catch up”.
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