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	Building momentum to hold Companies to Account by Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, agencies Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, agencies   Building momentum to hold Companies to Account, by Komala Ramachandra, Juliane Kippenberg from Human Rights Watch.   Millions of adults and children around the world suffer abuses as workers who obtain raw materials, toil on farms, and make products for the global market. They are at the bottom of global supply chains, for everything from everyday goods like vegetables and seafood to luxury items like jewelry and designer clothing that end up on store shelves worldwide.   Ruth, age 13, is one of them. We met her processing gold by mixing toxic mercury with her bare hands into ground-up gold ore near a mine, during our research in the Philippines. She told us that she had been working since she was 9, after dropping out of school, though she often doesn't get paid by the man who gave her bags of gold ore to process.   It's dangerous being on the lowest rung of this global ladder. In 2013, over 1,100 workers died and 2,000 were injured when the Rana Plaza building, which housed five garment factories, collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.   Since then, some progress has been made in making factories safer in Bangladesh, but there have not yet been sustainable reforms there or in other countries. To keep up with the demands of consumers, women experience a range of labor abuses in Bangladesh and elsewhere.   In January 2019, the Brumadinho tailings dam in Brazil collapsed, killing at least 250 people - mostly workers - and unleashed a wave of toxic sludge. The dam had collected waste from a mine extracting iron ore, which is used globally in construction, engineering, automotive, and other industries.   In December 2019, more than 40 people, mostly workers, died in a factory fire in India's capital, Delhi. Workers were asleep inside the factory, which makes school bags, when the fire erupted.   The era in which voluntary initiatives were the only way to encourage companies to respect human rights is starting to give way to the recognition that new, legally enforceable laws are needed. Although the debates vary by country, the overall trend is promising for the workers and communities that are part of multinational corporate supply chains.   Increasingly, lawmakers are acknowledging that companies need to take human rights, including freedom from unsafe working conditions, forced labor, and wage theft into account, and are writing laws that require them to do so.   Multinational corporations, some of the wealthiest and most powerful entities in the world - 69 of the richest 100 entities in the world are corporations, not countries - have often escaped accountability when their operations have hurt workers, the surrounding communities, or the environment.   And governments aligned with powerful companies have frequently failed to regulate corporate activity, or have not enforced and even eliminated existing protections for workers, consumers, and the environment.   The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights provide voluntary guidelines for companies on their human rights responsibilities, but they aren't enforceable. Industry-driven voluntary standards and certification schemes, which have grown rapidly in recent years, can be useful, but are not sufficient: many companies will only act when they are required to do so by law.   These standards also don't cover key human rights and environmental issues in companies supply chains, and the systems for monitoring compliance with the standards haven't always been able to catch and rectify problems.   Both the Rana Plaza factory and the Brumadinho dam had been inspected by auditors hired by the companies just months before disaster struck.   In recent years, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK have passed laws on corporate human rights abuses. But some of the existing laws don't have any teeth. Australia and the UK, for example, merely require companies to be transparent about their supply chains and report any actions they may have taken to address issues like forced or child labor, but do not actually require them to prevent or remedy these issues. Furthermore, neither country has penalties for companies that don't comply with the law.   France's 2017 law is the broadest and most rigorous regulation currently in effect, requiring companies to identify and prevent both human rights and environmental impacts in their supply chains, including the companies they control directly and those with which they work.   Companies in France published the first 'vigilance plans' under this law in 2018. Failure to comply can result in lawsuits, and the first legal action under the duty of vigilance law was filed in October 2019.   Laws like the one in France, with requirements for company action, consequences when they fail to follow through, and a way for workers to hold companies accountable, open the door for greater protections for workers around the world.   The year 2020 promises more progress for more people. Parliaments in Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Canada, Norway, Finland, and Austria are considering laws that would change the way that companies deal with human rights in their global operations, going beyond transparency and reporting to requirements to identify human rights risks in corporate supply chains and to take steps to prevent them.   In a related development, the International Labour Organization is considering whether a new binding global convention on - decent work in global supply chains - is needed, and will hold a meeting with government, trade union, and employer representatives in 2020 to explore this question.   By adopting robust supply chain regulation, countries will create a new international expectation for responsible behavior for businesses, and more rigorous human rights safeguards for millions of workers, like Ruth, who struggle to survive in their mines, factories, and fields. http://bit.ly/2PPIHBF   Dec. 2019   EU Investor Disclosure Regulation. (Global Witness/ActionAid)   New rules, which came into force in December 2019, require European investors such as banks, pension funds and insurers, to disclose their impacts on people and planet and to publish the action they are taking to prevent harms.   Our new briefing, co-authored with Action Aid, outlines practically what the rules mean, and how they can be implemented in a way that may be most effective for people and the planet.   These rules followed intense negotiations at EU level, which resulted in new obligations for investors to consider a broader set of risks to their investment activity than pure financial risk to their profits, and to assess and mitigate risks to human rights and our global environment.   As part of these new rules, investors will now need to: be transparent about the principal adverse impacts their investments have on people and planet; publish details of their 'due diligence' policies to make sure they can systematically identify, prevent and mitigate and account for those adverse impacts.   Whilst there are no reliable estimates of the global footprint of European investments, research by civil society organisations including Global Witness shows that investments by European based financial institutions can often have significant detrimental effects on climate change, human rights and deforestation - to name just a few.   Now, not only will investors need to disclose the principal adverse impacts their investments have on people and planet, they will need to publish details of their 'due diligence' policies to make sure they can systematically identify, prevent and mitigate and account for those adverse impacts.   This briefing is intended to provide clarity on the impact of these rules and clearly outlines how under the new regulation investors must be able to identify whether the assets or companies they are investing in will have any negative impact on people and the planet and then mitigate that impact.   EU member states will have until May 2021 to fully implement these rules. We will be calling for speedy and robust implementation of these rules which are an essential part of efforts to reform the EU's financial sector to make it truly sustainable.   http://www.business-humanrights.org/en/eu-commissioner-for-justice-commits-to-legislation-on-mandatory-due-diligence-for-companies http://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/european-union-brussels-global-witness-eu/eu-investor-disclosure-regulation/ http://www.business-humanrights.org/en/landmark-report-on-1000-european-companies-shows-the-need-for-human-rights-due-diligence-laws http://www.allianceforcorporatetransparency.org/ http://concordeurope.org/blog/2019/11/18/inequalities-report-2019/ Visit the related web page
	Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century by UN Development Programme (UNDP), agencies   The 2019 Human Development Report sets out how the unequal distribution of education, health and living standards limit countries progress. By these measures, 20 per cent of human development progress was lost through inequalities in 2018.   'This Human Development Report sets out how systemic inequalities are deeply damaging our society and why', said Achim Steiner, the UNDP Administrator.   'Inequality is not just about how much someone earns compared to their neighbour. It is about the unequal distribution of wealth and power: the entrenched social and political norms that are bringing people onto the streets today, and the triggers that will do so in the future unless something changes. Recognizing the real face of inequality is a first step; what happens next is a choice that each leader must make'.   The report, 'Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: inequalities in human development in the 21st Century', looks at but also goes beyond simply measuring income disparities. Inequality begins even before birth and can accumulate, amplified by differences in health and education, into adulthood. Policies to address it, therefore, must include investing in young children's learning, health and nutrition.   Countries with a more productive workforce tend to have a lower concentration of wealth at the top, for example, enabled by policies that support stronger unions, set the right minimum wage, create a path from the informal to the formal economy, invest in social protection, and attract women to the workplace.   Policies to enhance productivity alone are not enough, however. The growing market power of employers is linked to a declining income share for workers. Antitrust and other policies are key to address the imbalancesof market power.   Public spending and fair taxation: the report argues that taxation cannot be looked at on its own, but it should be part of a system of policies, including public spending on health, education, and alternatives to a carbon-intensive lifestyle.   More and more, domestic policies are framed by global corporate tax discussions, highlighting the importance of new principles for international taxation, to help ensure fair play, avoid a race to the bottom in corporate tax rates, especially as digitalization brings new forms of value to the economy, and to detect and deter tax evasion.   Averages often hide what is really going on in society, highlights the report, and while they can be helpful in telling a larger story, much more detailed information is needed to create policies to tackle inequality effectively. This is true in tackling the multiple dimensions of poverty, in meeting the needs of those being left furthest behind such as people with disabilities, and in promoting gender equality and empowerment.   Based on current trends, it will take 202 years to close the gender gap in economic opportunity alone, cites the report. While the silence on abuse is breaking, the glass ceiling for women to progress is not. Instead, it is a story of bias and backlash.   For example, at the very time when progress is meant to be accelerating to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the report's 2019 Gender Inequality Index says progress actually is slowing.   A new social norms index in the report says that in half of the countries assessed, gender bias has grown in recent years. About fifty per cent of people across 77 countries, said they thought men make better political leaders than women, while more than 40 per cent felt that men made better business executives.   Therefore, policies that address underlying biases, social norms and power structures are key. For example, policies to balance the distribution of care, particularly for children, are crucial, says the report, given that much of the difference in earning between men and women throughout their lifecycle is generated before the age of 40.   Looking beyond today, the report asks how inequality may change in future, looking particularly at two seismic shifts that will shape life up to the 22nd century.   The climate crisis: As a range of global protests demonstrate, policies crucial to tackling the climate crisis like putting a price on carbon can be mis-managed, increasing perceived and actual inequalities for the less well-off, who spend more of their income on energy-intensive goods and services than their richer neighbours.   If revenues from carbon pricing are 'recycled' to benefit taxpayers as part of a broader social policy package, the authors argue, then such policies could reduce rather than increase inequality.   Technological transformation: Technology, including in the form of renewables and energy efficiency, digital finance and digital health solutions, offers a glimpse of how the future of inequality may break from the past, if opportunities can be seized quickly and shared broadly.   There is historical precedent for technological revolutions to carve deep, persistent inequalities, the Industrial Revolution not only opened up the great divergence between industrialized countries and those who depended on primary commodities; it also launched production pathways that culminated in the climate crisis.   The change that is coming goes beyond climate, says the report, but a 'new great divergence', driven by artificial intelligence and digital technologies, is not inevitable.   The report recommends for example, investment in lifelong learning to help workers adjust or change to new occupations, and international consensus on how to tax digital activities - all part of building a new, secure and stable digital economy as a force for convergence, not divergence, in human development.   Thomas Piketty. Co-Director at the World Inequality Lab:   'The UNDP Human development report offers a broad and innovative approach to inequality. It includes for the first time a transparency index regarding inequality statistics, covering different sources including administrative data. Even though everyone is concerned about inequality, not all governments are providing enough information about it. In fact, what this transparency index is showing is that we simply do not have enough data. We need relevant information for a meaningful debate'.   http://report.hdr.undp.org/ http://hdr.undp.org/en/2019-report http://ophi.org.uk/global-multidimensional-poverty-index-2019-illuminating-inequalities/ http://bit.ly/3541TlK http://gcap.global/news/17th-october-again/   Oct. 2019   2 billion people globally live on just 3 dollars a day, by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty   The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, as every 17th October, calls us again to strengthen our commitment to change our world and enable millions of people to lead different lives.   Around 2 billion people globally live on just 3 dollars a day. Around 3.4 billion people live on 5.5 dollars a day. Almost half of the world population live every day in a condition that the majority of the citizens of the North would not be able to face. Half of the world's population!   Can we just wait and see? Even if we renew this call every year, we'll never be tired of repeating that we need a different effort. We need justice and we need it now.   Can we just place blame? No, we want policies! Policies to transform our world now: we want fair rules for trade, effective rules for financial markets, fiscal justice to finance redistribution, universal social protection, health and education, water and food for all, sustainable and decent work for all, in a world that cares to put human persons, their dignity and intelligence at the core, instead of greed, egoism and fear.   These are the proposals we raised in the People's Assembly Declaration, when we met in September in New York, with a huge number of organizations and movements of civil society from all over the world.   Our call could be seen as naive. We know that some powerful people are even ready to use weapons to fight the poor, as is currently happening in the Middle East. But we know as well that we are the heirs, with a lot of friends in the world, of the struggles against slavery, injustice and war in the past centuries. Struggles that our mothers and our fathers together won. These legacies are the jewels feeding our hope.   GCAP - the Global Call for Action Against Poverty is calling again to fight poverty, inequalities and injustice in all their forms. We do it chanting again that We Shall Overcome.   http://gcap.global/news/peoples-assembly-declaration/   Oct. 2019   One in nine face hunger: Inequality drives global figure to 10-year high   For the third year in a row, hunger and malnutrition are on the rise, back to levels last seen nearly 10 years ago, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food told the UN General Assembly.   Today, Hilal Elver said, one in nine people face hunger and 2 billion people are food insecure.   This lack of progress in the realization of the right of everyone to food confirms that states have struggled to fulfil their promise to 'leave no one behind', as embedded in the 2030 Agenda. Yet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) do provide a roadmap for adopting policy reforms and expand social and legal protections for the most vulnerable groups.   'The Sustainable Development Goals, are a potentially transformative tool to advance the realization of the right to food, as well as other economic, social and cultural rights', the expert said.   Accomplishing the goals first and foremost requires tackling the inequalities that have undermined the right to food and left too many behind.   'A human rights based vision of the Goals gives high priority to the more than 2.5 billion people who depend on agriculture for both subsistence and their livelihoods. It also requires dispersing wealth to close the inequality gap within and among countries and between individuals', said Elver.   Implementing fiscal policies that redistribute wealth will help reallocate power and promote greater access to productive resources within food systems, especially for the world's poor, as redistribution via taxation or reallocation of existing spending may resolve over 75 percent of global poverty.   The Special Rapporteur also called on States to continue to expand access to social protection systems, saying that less than half of the world's population is effectively protected by legally enforceable social protections and that coverage is often limited by inadequate implementation.   Ensuring that no-one is left behind also requires eliminating the structural discrimination that interferes with the enjoyment of a wide range of human rights, Elver said.   'Women and girls, youth, peasants, rural communities, indigenous peoples and migrants face persistent discrimination and increased vulnerability to hunger in disaster and conflict settings. States must use the Goals as a blueprint for actively engaging and empowering groups that have been historically left behind'.   The global agenda for change cannot be achieved if the right to food is not guaranteed. States must trade in market-driven policies for human rights based solutions and allocate sufficient resources to support the implementation of the Goals, Elver said. http://hilalelver.org/ Visit the related web page
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