Human rights defenders have faced brutal reprisals for standing up to extractive industries with links to UK companies or investors, according to a report calling for a law obliging firms to do human rights and environmental due diligence.
Peace Brigades International (PBI) UK says a corporate accountability law requiring businesses to do due diligence on their operations, investments and supply chains could have prevented past environmental devastation and attacks.
Its report, published on Thursday, details cases from Colombia, Honduras, Indonesia and Mexico where it says human rights defenders have paid the price for UK corporate profits.
Christina Challis, the advocacy manager at PBI UK, said: “A mandatory due diligence law is needed to oblige UK businesses to identify, prevent and mitigate their impacts, and to ensure there are consequences if they don’t. This will mean that less communities need to take a stand, and lead to less risks for those who choose to.
“The UK is behind the curve. Labour can only live up to its pre-election promises to protect rights and the environment if they hold corporations to account.”
Calling for a new act, PBI UK, one of 39 civil society groups in the Corporate Justice Coalition, says mandatory due diligence laws already exist in France, Germany and Norway while the EU has approved a directive on the matter.
It says such a law should reverse the burden of proof on to businesses so that they are liable where they failed to prevent harm unless they took all reasonable steps to prevent it from occurring.
Among the cases highlighted in the report are that of the FTSE 100 company Fresnillo, which was found by a Mexican agrarian court to have operated a goldmine illegally on communal land and was ordered to pay compensation and restore the site. There has also been violence against anti-mining activists in Sonora, north-west Mexico.
Fresnillo has said it was not responsible for the deaths of community members and that its own employees were victims of violence. It said it had complied with all laws and had vacated land as instructed by the court.
Jesús Javier Thomas, who campaigned against the mine, is among a group of Indigenous and Afro-descendent representatives from Indonesia, Peru and Colombia and grassroots land defenders from Kenya, Liberia and Mexico who will meet a cross-party group of parliamentarians in Westminster to demand a new law. “Profit cannot be put before life,” he said.
Another example highlighted is that of UK-listed company, Amerisur, which was accused of colluding with Farc guerillas amid opposition to its oil exploitation in the Colombian Amazon. The company denies the allegations.
The report says more than 150 companies and investors, parliamentarians from across the political spectrum and four in five Britons (based on a YouGov poll) have backed a new act.
The Department for Business and Trade said: “We are clear that no company in the UK should have forced labour in its supply chain, no matter where they operate in the world, and that businesses should act where they find issues.
“We have also strengthened the rules on excluding suppliers linked to modern slavery from public procurement opportunities. We keep our approach to how the UK can best tackle forced labour and environmental harms in supply chains under continual review.”
