This year, states will begin implementing a global minimum tax rate of fifteen percent on multinational corporations with more than €750 million (about $810 million) in revenues. If these tax reforms succeed in increasing tax revenues across the approximately 140 implementing countries as they intend, these additional funds could be used to advance the social and economic rights of their citizens, especially for the most vulnerable populations, including those whose rights have been abused by corporations historically. However, the coming tax reforms are still so riddled with gray areas regarding form and function that it is too early to call the initiative a victory in corporate accountability.
Durante los 365 días desde que se bloqueó la entrada de su azúcar a los Estados Unidos por trabajo forzoso, el Central Romana ha optado por implementar sólo cambios superficiales para los cañeros y utilizar estrategias políticas en un aparente intento de hacer desaparecer la WRO.
Over the 365 days since its sugar was blocked from entering the United States, Central Romana has chosen to implement only superficial changes for workers while pulling political strings in an apparent effort to make the import ban disappear.
Last month, The Guardian revealed that Canadian pipeline company Enbridge has paid Minnesota police more than two and a half million dollars for services including the surveillance and arrest of Water Protectors resisting the company’s construction of a new Line 3 pipeline. This post situates the Enbridge-police agreement in Minnesota and violent crackdown against Water Protectors at Line 3 within a disturbing global context rooted in colonialism.
In 2019, CAL partnered with EarthRights International to update their Guide to the Foreign Legal Assistance statute. Given that the US is an increasingly difficult jurisdiction for transnational human rights cases against companies, this tool provides an opportunity for workers and community members to access key evidence located in the US even where they may not have been able to bring suit there.
The cocoa industry is complex, and volatile market prices and companies’ responses can easily grab consumers’ attention this Halloween season. But we should not simply focus on big corporations and market forces and ignore the human reality behind the dollar sign. Climate change, deforestation, and disease are doing more than raising the cost of Halloween candy; they are threatening the livelihoods of the many farmers who helped make the season so sweet.
After nearly a decade of legal back-and-forth, a major decision from the UK High Court has moved the case against Shell plc (Shell) and its former Nigerian subsidiary one step closer to trial. On June 20, the Court ruled that the Bille and Ogale communities in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta can pursue claims for environmental harm dating back decades, rejecting Shell’s attempt to escape liability based on procedural technicalities. For the tens of thousands of residents living with the aftermath of oil spills, this ruling opens a path forward. And for others watching from across the globe, where multinational corporations have extracted resources and left destruction behind, it’s a moment worth paying attention to.
