Weekly Update 10 July
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
We are an international NGO that tracks the human rights impacts of over 10,000 companies in over 180 countries.
LEAD STORY
CNN,?UN Human Rights Council,?LICADHO & 52 Others?
10 activists from youth-led environmental campaigning group Mother Nature Cambodia have been convicted, fined and sentenced to between 6 and 8 years in prison on charges of conspiracy against the state stemming from the group’s peaceful environmental activism between 2012 to 2021. 6 of the convicted activists were minors at the time the alleged offences were committed. ‘These young people were arrested for trying to protect Phnom Penh’s largest lake’ said a spokesperson for human rights group LICADHO. Boeng Tamok lake is one of many bodies of water in the metro area currently being filled, mostly by private developers, allegedly with little to no transparency or public input. In recent years the government has transferred more than 500 hectares of the lake to public institutions and private businesses for development. The activists' sentencing has sparked widespread condemnation including from independent UN experts and a group of 53 CSOs, who identified the convictions as part of a pattern of state repression against human rights defenders. They have?called for the immediate overturning of the convictions, the unconditional release of the activists, and an end to the harassment and prosecution of environmental and human rights defenders in Cambodia.??
The ruling comes a week after 12 land rights defenders were found guilty of incitement and sentenced to 6 months suspended imprisonment by Koh Kong Provincial Court after attempting to petition authorities for a resolution to a long-standing land dispute.?
FROM US
BHRRC
Our new report documents 60 legal cases (2011-2024) launched around the world by Indigenous Peoples, other communities and workers directly impacted by human rights harms associated with the renewable energy value chain. While these cases do not seek to challenge the energy transition itself, nearly 80% seek to permanently or temporarily halt the project in question for these abuses. This rising tide of strategic litigation could have a devastating impact: if companies fail to embed respect for human rights from the beginning of a project, the speed and sustainability of the energy transition is at risk of being derailed. ?
BHR IN CONFLICT-AFFECTED AREAS
ISRAEL/OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
Amnesty International
Major Dutch investor ASN Impact Investors has demanded the TKH Group, a Dutch manufacturer of cameras deployed in occupied East Jerusalem, adopt human rights due diligence policies within a year or face a termination of investment. This comes a year after Amnesty International published a report documenting how Israel’s vast network of facial recognition-enabled cameras violates the human rights of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. A spokesperson for Amnesty said, ‘[Investor] vigilance is important especially where the risk of human rights harms is heightened [...] this is particularly urgent in the wake of Israel’s escalating surveillance-enabled crackdown on freedom of movement and freedom of association and peaceful assembly’. A spokesperson for ASN Impact said it is ‘actively engag[ing] with TKH Group to develop proper due diligence policies’.?TKH Group did not respond to journalist requests for comment. ? ?
Wired
Employees said they were concerned about the platform's decision to keep up a controversial Israeli ‘military hype song’, which celebrates Israeli forces in Gaza and, critics argue, incites violence against Palestinians. The decision has led to accusations of bias, with employees and activists highlighting a perceived double standard compared to the treatment of pro-Palestinian content. In a response to journalists,?YouTube challenged accusations of bias and called it misleading to draw broad conclusions about its enforcement approach based on 'a handful of examples'.?
RUSSIA/UKRAINE ?
NewsGuard?
A NewsGuard audit?allegedly found leading chatbots are repeating fabricated narratives from state-affiliated sites masquerading as local news outlets. Investigators examined responses from 10 of the world's largest AI companies and found chatbots?allegedly repeating false Russian disinformation narratives 32% of the time, with 52 of the 570 analysed responses containing explicit disinformation, and 29 responses repeating false claims with caveats. We invited Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta,?Microsoft,?Mistral, OpenAI, Perplexit, xAI?and?You.com to respond to the allegations; none did.
INTERNATIONAL
BankTrack, RFI?
On 26 June, a coordinated global day of action saw hundreds of protesters gather outside Chinese embassies and financial institutions in 10 countries across Africa and Europe. The demonstrations, organised by StopEACOP campaign members, called on on Chinese state-owned financial institutions to reject financing for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project due to concerns over potential human rights abuses and environmental damage. Protesters urged Chinese financial institutions, including SINOSURE,?China Exim Bank?and ICBC, to reconsider their involvement in the project. We invited SINOSURE,?China Exim Bank?and ICBC to respond; they did not.
AFRICA
Just Drinks
Global tea giants Lipton Teas and Infusions and Finlays have paused business with Toror Tea Factory?following the?election of?John Chebochok by the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) as a Director for the factory.?Allegations of sexual harassment against female workers at the factory were brought against Chebochok in an undercover investigation broadcast by the BBC in 2023. Both Lipton and Finlays have issued letters to Kenya’s agriculture minister, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the KTDA, expressing concerns around the appointment. In a statement, the KTDA said?it has asked 'all our tea buyers, stakeholders, and partners to allow us to work with all the concerned players and authorities to resolve concerns raised regarding his nomination', and that?shareholders of the factory still need to cast a vote to approve the appointment. Following the release of the BBC?investigation last year, we invited major tea brands?including?Lipton and Finlays?to respond to the allegations. Their responses can be read?here.?
Mongabay?
An investigation by supply chain consultancy Earthworm Foundation allegedly confirmed longstanding allegations of human rights violations and environmental damage raised by communities living near Socfin’s oil palm and rubber plantations. Investigators reportedly found evidence of sexual harassment, inadequate compensation schemes, and water pollution and environmental degradation affecting local communities. ‘The report shows that Socfin does not have safeguards in place and is lacking due diligence,’ said a spokesperson from Sierra Leonean advocacy group Green Scenery. Socfin did not respond to journalist requests for comment, but in a public statement following the reports, the Belgian transnational company said it ‘agrees with Earthworm that more needs to be done to further reduce these concerns’ and claimed it had implemented corrective measures. ?
Ghana News Agency?
The young activists?highlighted concerns over deceit, environmental pollution, inadequate compensation?and lack of job opportunities for locals. A spokesperson for Atlantic Lithium subsidiary Barari DV Ghana Limited said robust measures had been taken to reduce the negative impacts of the project including dust, noise, blasts, and water and air pollution. The company also said it would undertake development projects in the area, including building schools, hospitals and roads.
AMERICAS
The Verge, Human Rights Watch?
Meta is allegedly training its artificial intelligence (AI) models with users' personal data, prompting Brazil’s data protection authority (ANPD) to enforce a ban, citing ‘risks of serious damage and difficulty to users’. In May, the social media giant updated its privacy policy, granting itself permission to use public Facebook, Messenger and Instagram data from Brazil -?including posts, images, and captions - for AI training. The ANPD decision follows a report published last month which allegedly found that?LAION-5B?-?one of the largest image-caption datasets used to train AI models -?contains personal, identifiable photos of Brazilian children.?
See also; an investigation reportedly found personal photos of Australian children being used without consent to train LAION-5B AI tools, leading to significant privacy and security concerns. These photos, often scraped from the web, are used to develop AI systems that can create harmful deepfakes, putting children at risk of exploitation.?LAION, the German nonprofit that manages LAION-5B?pledged to remove the photos. It disputed that AI models trained on LAION-5B could reproduce personal data verbatim.
Mongabay?
Suriname is the only country in the Americas which has not legally recognised the territorial rights of Indigenous and tribal peoples. The government has already granted 447,000 hectares of concessions on Saamaka land, totalling nearly a a third (32%) of the communities’ territory. In a letter to the president, Saamaka communities asked the government to stop granting land concessions and to officially demarcate their land. They highlight ongoing challenges, including a logging road project they say was initiated in 2022 by Palmera Hout without proper consultation. In a petition to the government, the Association of Saamaka Communities asked for?all logging activities along the road to be stopped, and a consultation process and a social and environmental impact study of the road to be conducted. Journalists could not reach Palmera Hout for comment.?
The Guardian?
The ruling is based on Ecuador's constitutional recognition of the rights of ecosystems and natural entities to not be degraded or polluted, enabling individuals and communities to act as legal guardians or representatives for natural elements such as rivers, forests and mountains. The court's decision mandates the government to devise a clean-up plan for the river, which suffers from contamination due to untreated wastewater and other pollutants discharged from Ecuador's capital city, Quito. Environmental activists and the group Kitu Kara, representing the river, have welcomed the ruling as a significant step towards protecting the Machángara's ecological integrity. The city government has appealed the ruling.
领英推荐
ASIA & PACIFIC
Reuters? ?
Workers at Samsung Electronics began their strike on Monday [8 July], organised by the National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU). The union, representing 30,000 workers, nearly a quarter of Samsung's South Korean workforce, is demanding better pay, an additional day of annual leave for unionised workers, and changes to the employee bonus system. 6,540 workers are reportedly striking, mostly at manufacturing sites and in product development. Samsung said on Monday there was no disruption in production. A spokesperson for the NSEU said there could be further strikes if Samsung does not meet demands.?
The Wire?
The Government of Karnataka released the Draft Karnataka Platform-Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill on 29 June. The Bill seeks to regulate the social security and welfare of platform-based gig workers in the State, introducing safeguards against unfair dismissals and bringing in a 2-level grievance redressal mechanism for workers. The grievance redressal system provides gig workers with an accessible mechanism to address complaints and disputes, but labour rights activists say gig workers may face significant challenges in navigating it due to financial and time constraints. ?
The Beijing News, Global Times? ?
Following reports of tanker trucks transporting both food and chemical liquids without proper cleaning, state-owned food company?Sinograin has launched an investigation. The alleged practice, driven by cost-saving measures among operators, poses a risk of contaminating edible oils with chemical residues, resulting in public health?concerns, with consumer advocacy groups calling on regulators to conduct investigations to determine the scope and extent of the harm. A statement from Sinograin said it has mandated rigorous checks on transportation tools to ensure compliance with food safety regulations. Violations will lead to immediate termination of cooperation with?and blacklisting of carriers, with serious infractions reported to authorities for further action.
EUROPE & CENTRAL ASIA
Play the Game, n-tv?
UEFA EURO 2024's major sponsors - Alibaba, BYD and Vivo - are reportedly facing serious allegations of human rights abuses and unethical practices. Alibaba is accused of offering facial recognition software targeting ethnic minorities, particularly Uyghurs. Its e-commerce platform, AliExpress, is under investigation for allowing illegal content on its platform. BYD and Vivo supply chains have been linked to the use of Uyghur forced labour.? UEFA defended its partnerships with the sponsors, saying it is ‘a confederation of football associations and not a political player’. We invited Alibaba, BYD and Vivo to respond to the allegations. AliExpress?(owned by Alibaba) provided a response regarding allegations of illegal content on its platform, committing?to ‘take action to remove products and penalise perpetrators that violate our platform policies'.?BYD and Vivo did not respond.?
InfoMigrants ?
In June 2024 a Senegalese worker at Aluminium Bozen died following the?factory explosion. A further?5 workers were injured. Following the incident, the FIM, FIOM and UILM unions staged a strike across the entire metal worker sector in the region of Alto Adige, condemning inadequate safety measures within the sector. We invited Aluminium Bozen to respond to the strike action and unions’ calls for increased safety; it did not.?
Euronews?
In its preliminary findings, the European Commission said the policy - which forces users to either allow their personal data to be processed for free access or pay a fee to opt out of data processing - does not comply with Digital Markets Act (DMA). If the preliminary findings are confirmed, Meta faces potential fines up to 10% of its global turnover. A spokesperson for Meta said the platform ‘follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and complies with the DMA. We look forward to further constructive dialogue with the European Commission to bring this investigation to a close,’. The company has reportedly offered to cut the cost of its subscription service but is ‘still awaiting regulatory feedback’.
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA
Equidem; NY Times ?
Online retailer Noon, based in Saudi Arabia and a sponsor of Newcastle United Football Club, faces allegations of severe labour abuses against migrant workers. The?workers told researchers of a string of labour violations relating to working conditions and living conditions, including indicators of forced labour. Workers also reported punitive salary deductions,?nationality-based discrimination, intimidation and passport confiscation by managers. We invited The Football Association Premier League, Newcastle United?and Noon to respond to the allegations; Noon refuted the allegations as ‘grossly inaccurate misrepresentations’ and asserted its commitment to employee welfare. The Premier League said it is an ‘individual club's responsibility to undertake due diligence in respect of its own commercial partners' compliance with the Modern Slavery Act’.?Newcastle United?did not respond.
Philippine News Agency, Reuters, Djibouti Code of Conduct ?
In June 2024, the Filipino Department of Migrant Workers said it will ‘no longer allow’ Filipino seafarers to board ships attacked by Houthi rebels in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea, following discussions with maritime stakeholders on risk and security assessments and seafarer protection. In particular, the Department said?it will not allow boarding of 3 ships respectively owned, operated or chartered by Evalend Shipping,?Galaxy Maritime,?Nippon Yusen,?True Confidence Shipping and True January Maritime. We invited Evalend Shipping, Nippon Yusen and True January Maritime to respond to the allegations; they did not. We were unable to contact True Confidence Shipping or Galaxy Maritime to invite a response to the allegations.
FairSquare ?
A prolonged dengue?outbreak following severe flooding in the UAE is disproportionately affecting low-income migrant workers, according to a report by Fairsquare. Interviews with a government official, healthcare workers and migrant workers from across the Emirates reveal unaddressed ponds of stagnant flood water - a breeding ground for?dengue-carrying mosquitoes -?in areas where migrants live and work is worsening the issue.?Migrant workers who have contracted dengue also reported that they are not receiving adequate healthcare. FairSquare has called on the UAE authorities to address the disparity in flood response, as well as to increase public health education and resources.
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