What is the EU Due Diligence state of play? DG JUST talks holding business accountable The European Commission is preparing to enforce a new environmental and human rights due diligence law. How might the directive impact food and beverage businesses?
EU-wide legislation that sets binding requirements for businesses to respect human rights and the environment in their value chains is expected to be tabled this summer.
How will the European Commission use this legislation to increase accountability for companies? Salla Saastamoinen, Acting Director-General of the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST) weighs in.
Why bring in mandatory due diligence law?
By Anna Triponel, founder, Triponel Consulting2021-03-09T15:35:00+00:00
Source: Unsplash
Human rights due diligence calls for having frank and open conversations with business partners on the challenges they face
At the end of last year, Lidl GB became the first British food retailer to publish findings from its human rights impact assessment of its tea supply chain in Kenya. What Lidl found was that its typical compliance approach to supply chain management – certification schemes, questionnaires – were failing when it came to human rights. The company realised it needed to engage directly with local stakeholders, consider the ways its own buying practices were harming workers, and join with others to make systemic change in the tea sector.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
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Share via the Investor Alliance for Human Rights on 8 February 2021.
Since its beginning a year ago, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed once more the vulnerabilities in value chains, the precarity of global business operations, and the weakness of voluntary corporate action in addressing these issues. Organizations like the
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre take up hundreds of grassroots allegations of abuse each year. During the COVID-19 crisis, we have seen a
spike in allegations as millions of workers and communities around the world feel the consequences of corporate inaction in the face of a global pandemic. Yet there are signs of change.