Report: The Reality of Rights
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The abuse of human rights by UK companies operating overseas, particularly in de veloping countries, has been well documented by War on Want and others. Â
The Reality of Rights sets out to investigate those barriers to justice and seek to uncover the reasons why existing redress mechanisms are inadequate. The report is a joint publication between the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE) and uses five case studies of UK companies operating outside the UK in Kenya, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India and Georgia to identify these barriers.
Although there are well documented legal barriers to victims seeking access to justice the report found many of the barriers were as a result of the lack of political will of host countries to uphold human rights standards because of concerns regarding foreign investment alongside substantive practical, economic and capacity barriers.
The report concludes that because of the systemic nature of these barriers the UK government itself needs to play a far more active role in protecting people from human rights abuse as a consequence of the actions of UK companies, especially when operating abroad. The report goes on to recommend that the government consider the creation of Commission for Business, Human Rights and the Environment to help provide remedies for affected people and support like minded bodies and build capacity in host countries.Â
War on Want is a leading member of the CORE who is supporting the creation of a UK Commission on Business, Human Rights and the Environment.
