“… we renew our call on all governments to develop, implement, and enforce mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence requirements for businesses headquartered or operating within their own jurisdictions or, where appropriate, to further strengthen these regulatory regimes where they already exist.” – a statement from 94 investors representing over $6.3 trillion in AUM
As part of national plans to cut carbon emissions, the UK Cabinet Office released a Procurement Policy Note on 5 June 2021 (“PPN 06/21”, or the “PPN”): this mandates the assessment of Carbon Reduction Plans by UK central government departments as part of the procurement of large public contracts.
Key aspects of the Public Procurement
On 21 April 2021, the EU Commission announced its proposal to extend existing sustainability reporting in a new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The proposal, which revises the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (the “NFRD”), will extend the reach of sustainability reporting to more companies and will cover more sustainability topics.
This is part of a wider,
On March 3, 2021, the German government adopted a draft bill which obliges companies to ensure that human rights are observed throughout their entire supply chain. The aim of the “draft legislation on corporate due diligence in supply chains” (“Draft Bill”) (“Sorgfaltspflichtengesetz”) is to require companies to take steps to prevent human rights violations in
The European Commission has committed to tabling an EU-wide human rights due diligence law by June 2021.
There are strong indications that the proposed law will have a wide scope (with the potential to apply to non-EU domiciled companies) and contain sanctions for non-compliance.
But what is human rights due diligence, and how can companies