The Case for Change: Why human rights defenders need a UK law on mandatory due diligence
Human rights defenders are paying the price for UK profits
A new Peace Brigades International (PBI) UK investigation shows links between UK companies, environmental devastation and attacks on rights activists calling for law to ensure effective due diligence.
The report details six cases from Colombia, Honduras, Indonesia and Mexico in which human rights defenders have faced brutal reprisals for standing up to extractive industries with links to UK companies or investors. PBI UK is one of multiple NGOs calling for the UK government to pass a law making it mandatory for businesses to do human rights and environmental due diligence on their operations, investments and supply chains.
A group of Indigenous leaders and local environmental defenders from around the world will meet with parliamentarians in Westminster on November 21 to call on the government to ensure corporate accountability through a due diligence law.
Below are some of the key findings of the report, titled: ‘The Case For Change: Why human rights defenders need a UK law on mandatory due diligence’:[1]
Community leaders in Mexico murdered in 2018 and 2021 after standing up to illegal mining on their land by a subsidiary of Fresnillo PLC.
Indigenous leader arrested and reportedly threatened after questioning consultation processes which saw a HSBC-backed wind farm installed on communal land.
Assassination attempts against human rights defenders in Colombia who have alleged that Amerisur’s oil exploitation caused pollution of Amazon.
Allegations of torture of opponents of Rio Tinto-owned mine which polluted rivers in Indonesia.
Effective due diligence by companies could have avoided environmental devastation and escalation of attacks on human rights defenders.
Growing consensus across civil society organisations, companies, investors, politicians and the general public that a new UK law on mandatory due diligence is required to hold business to account and level the playing field. Civil society calling on Keir Starmer’s government to consult as soon as possible.
“Sadly, these examples show that some businesses can’t be trusted to prevent environmental and human rights abuses in their operations and supply chains. Brave human rights defenders are paying the ultimate price,” PBI UK Advocacy Manager Christina Challis said. “A mandatory due diligence law is needed to oblige UK businesses to identify, prevent and mitigate their impacts, and to ensure there are consequences if they don’t. This will mean that less communities need to take a stand, and lead to less risks for those who choose to.”
The PBI UK report comes after the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre documented 209 attacks on human rights defenders connected to UK companies between 2015 and 2023, with 30 activists murdered. Over 150 UK businesses, Parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, and a coalition of civil society organisations are behind the call for the UK government to pass a mandatory due diligence law. YouGov polling shows 4 in 5 adults in the UK support this call.
The EU passed a directive on this last year and other countries have also legislated to hold corporations to account for failing to ensure rights and the environment are respected in their supply chains. “The UK is behind the curve”, said Challis. “Labour can only live up to its pre-election promises to protect rights and the environment if they hold corporations to account”. On November 21, Indigenous and Afro-descendent representatives from Indonesia, Peru and Colombia - plus grassroots land defenders from Kenya, Liberia and Mexico - will head to Westminster, where they will meet a cross-party group of parliamentarians to demand action.
One of these is Jesús Javier Thomas, a land rights defender from Mexico whose community successfully called for the closure of an open-pit gold mine operated by Minera Penmont on communal lands (Penmont is a subsidiary of Fresnillo PLC, a UK-incorporated company listed on the London Stock Exchange). Mexican courts ruled that Penmont was operating on the land illegally without the community’s permission and ordered them to repair the environmental damage and compensate the community. Three of Thomas’s fellow land defenders who campaigned for implementation of the courts’ rulings have been murdered since 2018.
“Profit cannot be put before life”, said Thomas. “The only way to guarantee that British companies abroad operate legally and free from violence is to hold them to account. If the UK government fails to take action, human rights defenders will continue to die.”
As detailed in our report, Minera Penmont has categorically rejected that it is linked in any way with the crimes.
The cases in the report include:
Environmental catastrophe and threatened Indigenous leaders in Colombia: UK-listed companies and the Cerrejón coal mine.
Questionable consultation processes and criminalisation of project opponents in Mexico: UK financing of the Eólica del Sur wind farm.
Oil spills and assassination attempts in the Amazon of Colombia: UK-listed Amerisur’s oil fields.
Illegal extraction and the murder of environmentalists in Mexico: UK-listed Fresnillo’s gold mine.
Devastated ecosystems and tortured human rights defenders in Indonesia: The UK’s Rio Tinto and the Grasberg gold and copper mine.
Jailing and killing of water defenders in Honduras: The opaque export chains of iron from the Los Pinares mine.
For more information about PBI UK’s policy advocacy, visit our resource hub here. For any queries you may have regarding the report please reach out to benleather@peacebrigades.org.uk.
[1] We have endeavoured to include company responses to allegations in our report, where available. See the main body of the report for further details.
