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Tuesday April 20, 2021

So you’ve watched Seaspiracy — now what?

Boycotting fish may look like a simple answer, but it is too narrow a response to be an effective solution to the issues raised in the film Audiences across the world have been rightfully shocked by Seaspiracy, Netflix’s new documentary from British director Ali Tabrizi, which highlights gross environmental and human rights abuses — including human trafficking — occurring in the global fishing industry. From the killings of whales, dolphins, and sharks, scores of plastic fishing nets polluting the ocean, illegal fishing, the failure of certification stamps to

Forced Labor

Wednesday March 31, 2021

Six months after US import block against FGV, still no remediation for forced labor

For immediate release [Download as pdf for media contacts] Washington, D.C.— On March 31, 2021, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) released its second report on “Findings on the Progress of FGV’s Action Plan 2020.” The Fair Labor Association is affiliated with FGV Holdings Berhad in order to monitor the company’s progress on addressing labor rights and exploitation, including forced labor. Based on this latest update from FLA, it is clear that FGV has been slow to implement meaningful reforms to improve labor conditions for workers on palm plantations and has strikingly failed

Forced Labor

Tuesday March 30, 2021

Acting against state imposed forced labor

Freedom United's Executive Director, Joanna Ewart-James, spoke at the UN Global Compact Network U.K.’s Business & Human Rights Summit 2021 where she explored how some forced labor systems are organized by governments, embedding forced labor into our economic systems and creating a dependency on exploitation. Systems of state-imposed forced labor mean businesses can't just rely on governments to respect human rights – businesses themselves must interrogate their supply chains and take responsibility for rights abuses. If you missed the event, you can read Joanna Ewart-James'

Forced Labor

Tuesday March 23, 2021

Joint civil society monitoring finds systemic forced labor in Turkmenistan cotton harvest

A new joint report by leading independent Turkmen human rights groups exposes systemic forced labor during the 2020 cotton harvest in Turkmenistan, said the Cotton Campaign, a coalition of organizations including Freedom United. The report, Review of the Use of Forced Labor in Turkmenistan During the 2020 Cotton Harvest, was released today by Turkmen.news and the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights, both members of the Cotton Campaign coalition. The report is based on evidence documented by trained civil society monitors and local sources of information in four of Turkmenistan’s five

Law & Policy

Monday March 22, 2021

EU Parliament backs corporate accountability, but law can be strengthened

On March 10, 2021, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favor of a new EU law — 504 in favor, 79 against, and 112 abstentions — by adopting Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) legislative report by MEP Lara Wolters on corporate due diligence and corporate accountability. This is an important step forward as this now tasks the European Commission to come up with a draft proposal, which is expected mid-2021, that should require businesses to conduct due diligence in order to prevent and address human rights and environmental risks and impacts within their own