• China: CNMC Public Listing Needs Investor Vigilance
    Apr 22, 2012
    Prospective investors in China Non-Ferrous Metals Mining Corporation’s (CNMC) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong should be aware of the company’s disturbing labor rights practices in Zambia. CNMC’s inability or unwillingness to respect worker’s rights in their Zambia operations raises critical questions about corporate behavior that potential investors should direct to the company.
  • Cambodia: Cut Draft Provision Allowing Prison Labor
    Nov 28, 2011

    The Cambodian government should urge the Senate to strike a provision of the draft Law on Prisons that would permit prison labor to be used for producing goods for private firms.

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Reports

Corporations

  • Letter to Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT)
    May 17, 2012

    The undersigned human rights advocates, academics, freedom of expression groups, and civil society organizations write to express our desire to participate in the preparatory process undertaken for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The current preparatory process lacks the transparency, openness of process, and inclusiveness of all relevant stakeholders that are imperative under commitments made at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). We ask that the Secretary-General, the Council Working Group, and Member States work to resolve these process deficiencies in several concrete ways. 

  • China: CNMC Public Listing Needs Investor Vigilance
    Apr 22, 2012
    Prospective investors in China Non-Ferrous Metals Mining Corporation’s (CNMC) upcoming initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong should be aware of the company’s disturbing labor rights practices in Zambia. CNMC’s inability or unwillingness to respect worker’s rights in their Zambia operations raises critical questions about corporate behavior that potential investors should direct to the company.
  • Submission for Report on Business and Human Rights and the UN System
    Mar 28, 2012
    The World Bank Group should recognize the need to act in a manner consistent with the three pillars of the UN’s “Protect, Respect and Remedy” human rights framework, including as elaborated in the Guiding Principles. Governments’ obligations to respect human rights include the obligation to protect against human rights abuses by third parties.
  • Letter to Representative Smith in Support of H.R. 3605, the Global Online Freedom Act (GOFA)
    Mar 13, 2012

    Human Rights Watch is in strong support of H.R. 3605, the Global Online Freedom Act of 2011. This bill is an important tool in preventing repressive governments from enlisting U.S. companies in their effort to transform the Internet into a tool of surveillance and repression. 

  • Corporate Crime and Punishment
    Feb 28, 2012

    On February 28, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that will decide whether corporations will be exempted from a crucial law that allows foreign victims of serious human rights abuses to sue them in US courts for civil damages. Any decision that lets corporations off the hook would be a major blow to justice and contrary to the global move toward more corporate accountability. 

  • Gold’s image tarnished by child labour in mines
    Dec 22, 2011
    There has been a lot of debate about corporate social responsibility. But most gold traders I interviewed showed no concern about the use of child labour.
  • Cambodia: Cut Draft Provision Allowing Prison Labor
    Nov 28, 2011

    The Cambodian government should urge the Senate to strike a provision of the draft Law on Prisons that would permit prison labor to be used for producing goods for private firms.

  • Why are people disappearing in China?
    Sep 22, 2011

    Foreign countries should resist China's efforts to make them complicit in the abuse of human rights.  

  • UN: A Move to Support Rights-Respecting Businesses
    Jul 11, 2011

    Candidates for a UN Human Rights Council working group to develop human rights standards for transnational corporations and other businesses should have substantial human rights expertise and meet high standards for impartiality and integrity. A coalition of civil society groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Commission of Jurists, and Rights & Accountability in Development proposed guidelines to the Human Rights Council to help in its selection of the expert panel.

  • UN Human Rights Council: Weak Stance on Business Standards
    Jun 16, 2011
    The UN Human Rights Council squandered an opportunity to take meaningful action to curtail business-related human rights abuses. The council, on June 16, 2011, endorsed a set of "Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights" and announced the formation of a working group and an annual meeting of business, government, and civil society representatives focused on disseminating and discussing those principles.
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