Main, Blog
Charity Ryerson
A New Global Minimum Tax on Corporations and ...

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.  

A New Global Minimum Tax on Corporations and Human Rights Implications
Main, Blog
Charity Ryerson
Un año desde la prohibición del azúcar del ...

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.

Un año desde la prohibición del azúcar del Central Romana en mercado EEUU por trabajo forzoso
Blog, Main
Charity Ryerson
One year since Central Romana sugar banned from ...

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. 

One year since Central Romana sugar banned from US market for forced labor
Avery Kelly
Enbridge and the Dangers of Extractive ...

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.

Enbridge and the Dangers of Extractive Industry-Police Alliances
Main
Avery Kelly
CAL & EarthRights Launch Updated Guide to ...

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. 

CAL & EarthRights Launch Updated Guide to Foreign Legal Assistance Statute, Allowing Attorneys Suing Companies Access to Discovery Process in the US

The Fashion Sustainability & Social Accountability Act: Nothing More than a Consumer Awareness Bill

The Fashion Sustainability & Social Accountability Act: Nothing More than a Consumer Awareness Bill

In January 2022, the New York Assembly unveiled the Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act (FSSAA), a law that purports to change the fashion industry and its role in perpetuating human rights and environmental harm. Such a law is certainly needed; the fashion industry is a massive polluter, accounting for between 2-8 percent of global emissions. The industry employs 75 million people, including workers in all parts of the supply chain and in countries throughout the world – many of whom are vulnerable and exploited.

But is this law really as powerful and “historic” as the New York Times claimed? No. After careful analysis, we believe that while we would rather see it pass than fail, there are some major flaws that weaken it. This law will not be a game-changer; at best, it will provide a little bit more transparency in supply chains, a positive but small step in the right direction. At worst, it will stop other pushes for legislation that would actually provide remedy to workers and incentivize changes in supply chains beyond disclosure.

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SFC v. Vizio: Third-Party Beneficiaries in Open Source Software Licenses?

SFC v. Vizio: Third-Party Beneficiaries in Open Source Software Licenses?

Most of us do not care how software runs, whether that software is on our computers, our televisions, or our toasters - we just need it to work. However, part of the reason open source software has expanded is because it's in an ecosystem where developers and maintainers are trying to look at the code, use it, modify it, improve it, and even redistribute it. In fact, this concept is so integral to open source software, that many open source software licenses demand that any projects derived from licensed work also be open source, and allow others to use it, copy it, modify it, and distribute it. So, if a company does not adhere to the terms of the license, can you, as a consumer who should have the ability to view the source code of your smart appliances, sue them for breach of contract? If you can, what does that mean for open source software licenses, including ethical open source software licenses, going forward?

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Corporate America's Empty Promise to Defend Democracy

Corporate America's Empty Promise to Defend Democracy

One year ago today, on January 6, 2021, after thousands of deceived Americans violently overtook the U.S. Capitol and delayed a critical procedural step in the peaceful transition of power, waves of corporations issued statements condemning the violence and promising to “reevaluate” their political alliances by ending donations to leaders of the insurrection. Many of these public pledges were then broken in less than 3 months.

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International Mission in Colombia Identifies Corporate Complicity in Abuses Against Protestors

International Mission in Colombia Identifies Corporate Complicity in Abuses Against Protestors

Six months after the National Strike erupted in Colombia, impunity continues for human rights violations committed against protesters. Over the summer, CAL participated in Mission SOS Colombia, an international mission to observe and report on the government’s response to widespread social protests and conditions that protesters were facing. This post highlights the Mission’s key findings on excessive use of force by state actors and harms committed by corporations in the context of the protest. More information is available in the Mission’s report in Spanish.

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Export Controls and Human Rights

Export Controls and Human Rights

Corporate Accountability Lab has been working on blocking imports into the United States of goods produced using forced labor, relying largely on Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930. This blog looks at possibilities for using controls on exports as a way of advancing human rights. The human rights issues here do not center on how goods were produced; they center on how goods are likely to be used. Recent statements joined by the United States emphasize the need to be proactive in ensuring that advanced technologies are not used for such purposes as state-sponsored, repressive cybersurveillance. The technologies at the heart of this effort include artificial intelligence and advanced surveillance technologies (e.g., facial recognition technologies).

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No More Safe Harbors: The International Need for Import Prohibitions on the Products of Forced Labor

No More Safe Harbors: The International Need for Import Prohibitions on the Products of Forced Labor

Across the globe, an estimated 25 million people work in conditions of forced labor. In many of these cases, the private companies that supply the cotton, cocoa, and coffee we use every day directly benefit by producing and buying goods at lower costs.

Legal prohibitions on importing goods produced with forced and prison labor authorize customs and border officials to block goods from entering major markets, a strong incentive for companies to clean up their supply chains. Import prohibitions can fundamentally challenge companies’ profit models and thus their behavior: with the ability to sell goods in a country at risk, a company’s incentive to cut costs by using forced and prison labor drops drastically.

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Enbridge and the Dangers of Extractive Industry-Police Alliances

Enbridge and the Dangers of Extractive Industry-Police Alliances

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.

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Google Breaks Its Promise On A.I.—Ethical IP Licensing Would Have Made That Very Hard To Do

Google Breaks Its Promise On A.I.—Ethical IP Licensing Would Have Made That Very Hard To Do

Three years ago, we blogged about the successful campaign by Google tech workers to persuade the company to withdraw from Project Maven—a United States Department of Defense program aimed at using artificial intelligence (A.I.) to rapidly analyze and identify drone targets. More than 4,000 Google employees signed a letter to Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, demanding that Google “not be in the business of war.” The internal revolt worked: Google declined to renew its contract for Project Maven and published a set of A.I. principles—including a vow that no future A.I. endeavor would be used for “weapons…whose principal purpose or implementation is to cause or directly facilitate injury to people.”

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Introducing Our New Special Advisor Dean Pinkert

Introducing Our New Special Advisor Dean Pinkert

CAL is excited to introduce our newest staff member, Dean Pinkert. In this introductory blog, Dean discusses his background and what led him late in his career to join CAL and focus on international human rights and environmental sustainability.

Dean is highly motivated to “give back” after having achieved his goals in private practice and in government. He takes this to mean embracing a wider agenda--leveraging the law to advance global human rights and environmental sustainability--as well as serving as a resource for CAL colleagues and allies.

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CAL files suit against Hershey and Rainforest Alliance 

CAL files suit against Hershey and Rainforest Alliance 

Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) is excited to announce that on October 27, 2021 we filed suit against Hershey and the certification scheme Rainforest Alliance in a consumer protection case in Washington, D.C. Superior Court. CAL, as the plaintiff in the case, is suing the defendants -- Hershey and Rainforest Alliance -- for false and deceptive marketing representations on certain Hershey chocolate products. We are bringing suit under the Washington, D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act (“CPPA”), a consumer protection statute that allows public interest organizations like CAL to sue on behalf of the general public.

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Corporate Accountability Lab Stands in Solidarity with Palestinian Civil Society

Corporate Accountability Lab Stands in Solidarity with Palestinian Civil Society

On October 19, 2021, the Israeli government outlawed and criminalized six Palestinian human rights organizations by deeming them “terrorist organizations.” This designation by the Israeli government essentially criminalizes these groups, allows the Israeli government to shut down the organizations’ offices, arrest staff members, and seize the organizations’ property. It also prohibits funding or even publicly supporting these groups. Corporate Accountability Lab stands in solidarity with these six human rights organizations and joins human rights organizations in the United States and world in denouncing the Israeli government’s civil society crackdown.

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CAL finds evidence of child labor on Rainforest Alliance certified farms

CAL finds evidence of child labor on Rainforest Alliance certified farms

In 2001, eight cocoa and chocolate companies came together to sign the Harkin-Engel Protocol, a voluntary agreement in which companies promised to eradicate child labor in the West African cocoa industry by 2005. Twenty years after the agreement went into effect, an estimated 1.56 million children work in the cocoa industry in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, which produce about two-thirds of the world’s cocoa. About 1.48 million of these children are engaged in hazardous child labor, which includes using a machete, carrying heavy loads -- often of cocoa beans -- and spraying pesticides.

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Advancing Ethical Licensing and the Launch of Hippocratic License 3.0

Advancing Ethical Licensing and the Launch of Hippocratic License 3.0

CAL, in partnership with the Organization for Ethical Source (OES), has launched Hippocratic License 3.0 (HL 3.0), an ethical open source software license designed to: (1) offer software developers a license that clearly defines what kind of behavior a potential licensor must adhere to, by basing the ethical standards section of HL 3.0 in international human rights norms; (2) extend software developers the ability to add additional ethical standards clauses to further champion a variety of specific human rights causes; (3) provide software developers the most enforceable ethical open software license to date; and (4) create an opportunity for victims of human rights violations to seek legal remedy through a private right of action.

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Illegal Timber from the Amazon Rainforest: What the US Got Right and How to Do Better

Illegal Timber from the Amazon Rainforest: What the US Got Right and How to Do Better

Beautiful cabinets and fancy doors made of timber from the Peruvian Amazon decorate the homes of people in 35 countries. This timber likely comes from illegal deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, which in turn impacts the environmental crisis. For nearly a decade, 130 forest authorities signed more than 1,000 forest management plans that included false information to circumvent the law and extract timber from prohibited forests, national parks, and indigenous community protected lands in Peru.

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Urgent Call for Accountability in Colombia: New Death Threats Against Jani Silva

Urgent Call for Accountability in Colombia: New Death Threats Against Jani Silva

Three months ago, the members of the Corporate Liability and Sustainable Peace (CLASP) Lab drafted an open letter expressing our deep concern for Jani Silva's life and safety. We denounced death threats that Jani had received from the criminal armed group Comando de la Frontera in connection to her work as an environmental defender of the Campesino Reserve of the Amazon Pearl of Putumayo, Colombia. Today, we write again after Jani and her family were forced to flee the territory she has defended for decades. She received information about an imminent assassination plan against her.

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Negotiations for the New UN Ocean Treaty: Why the Treaty Must Include Corporate Environmental and Human Rights Obligations

Negotiations for the New UN Ocean Treaty: Why the Treaty Must Include Corporate Environmental and Human Rights Obligations

A small group of corporations play an outsized role in exploiting marine animals in international waters. Estimates suggest that only thirteen seafood corporations account for up to 40% of the largest and most valuable fish catches worldwide. So far, decades old management measures to regulate fishing in international waters have failed to stem fish population declines. Meanwhile, dangerous working conditions, forced labor, trafficking, and other human rights abuses are alarmingly common onboard fishing and cargo vessels.

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CAL presenta amicus pidiendo que la Corte Suprema proteja la identidad de las victimas en Doe v. Chiquita

CAL presenta amicus pidiendo que la Corte Suprema proteja la identidad de las victimas en Doe v. Chiquita

Corporate Accountability Lab presentó un memorial de amicus curiae solicitando a la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos que conceda el certiorari en el caso, Doe v. Chiquita Brands International. El caso fue presentado por los familiares de sindicalistas, trabajadores del sector bananero, organizadores políticos, activistas sociales y otras personas atacadas y asesinadas por las Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), una organización paramilitar de derecha en Colombia financiada en parte por Chiquita, la empresa bananera multinacional con sede en Estados Unidos. Los demandantes han interpuesto una querella contra Chiquita, alegando que Chiquita fue cómplice de las AUC financiándolas.

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Honoring Berta Cáceres and her Vision for Indigenous Liberation in Honduras

Honoring Berta Cáceres and her Vision for Indigenous Liberation in Honduras

Berta Cáceres Flores is the “seed of freedom” for her indigenous Lenca people of Honduras and all who pay tribute to her legacy by continuing her struggle for indigenous liberation. Cáceres’s assassination near midnight on March 3, 2016 was orchestrated by employees at the hydroelectric dam company Desarrollos Energéticos (DESA), after Cáceres and her community disrupted the dam’s construction on their ancestral lands and sacred Gualcarque river. Just this week, over five years later, the former head of DESA was convicted for her murder.

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CAL Files Amicus Brief Asking Supreme Court to Protect Victims' Identities in Doe v. Chiquita

CAL Files Amicus Brief Asking Supreme Court to Protect Victims' Identities in Doe v. Chiquita

Corporate Accountability Lab filed an amicus brief on behalf of a group of human rights organizations, asking the US Supreme Court to grant certiorari in the case Doe v. Chiquita. The case was brought by the family members of trade unionists, banana workers, political organizers, social activists, and others targeted and killed by the United Self-Defense Group of Colombia (AUC), a right-wing paramilitary organization in Colombia funded in part by Chiquita.

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CAL and IRAdvocates Provide New Evidence of Forced Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector in Wake of Supreme Court Decision in Nestle v. Doe

CAL and IRAdvocates Provide New Evidence of Forced Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector in Wake of Supreme Court Decision in Nestle v. Doe

On June 24, 2021, Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) and International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) submitted new evidence of forced child labor and trafficking in the Ivorian cocoa sector to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) under Section 307 of the Tariff Act. This evidence was submitted as a supplement to a 307 petition we filed almost a year and a half ago, in February 2020. In both petitions we request that CBP issue a Withhold Release Order (WRO) to stop the importation of all cocoa and chocolate produced with forced child labor from Cote d’Ivoire.


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