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On April 11, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a report that found that of the national efforts to improve U.S. food safety, “none of the targets were reached in 2007.” According to the CDC, 76 million Americans — one in four — come down with food poisoning every year. Among the most (…)

The mobile phone industry is often presented as a clean, unproblematic industry, but makeITfair’s report ’Silenced to Deliver’ shows that this is not the case. Young electronics workers handle chemicals without protective gear. They work inhumane overtime hours to cover basic needs and are (…)

Immigration and asylum policies in the European Union have entered into a new period. The author sums up the most important achievements and failures of the EU’s efforts to creat a common European asylum and immigration system, and she evaluates the new Hague Programme of the European Council (…)

The report is based on field research carried out in and around shipbreaking yards in Chittagong, as well as in Northern Bangladesh villages, where many child workers come from. With Childbreaking Yards, FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights ) and YPSA (Young Power in Social Action) (…)

The Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved by 2015 at the present rate of progress
Progress in basic social indicators slowed down last year all over the world and at the present rate it does not allow for the internationally agreed poverty reduction goals to be met by 2015, unless (…)

An alarming number of women soldiers are being sexually abused by their comrades-in-arms, both at war and at home. This fact has received a fair amount of attention lately from researchers and the press — and deservedly so.
But the attention always focuses on the women: where they were when (…)

It has been six months since the new Labour contract law was implemented inside China. The implementing guidelines – to clear up inconsistencies in the law and help guide companies and labour bureaus in implementing the details – should be issued soon. They were first scheduled for last year and (…)

A generic medicine is a pharmaceutical product that is no longer protected by a patent and which can be copied by other companies. It may be marketed either under its own brand or as an unbranded product. European governments are increasingly relying on generics to save on healthcare costs and (…)

A new report on the social impacts of the agrofuels boom.
Do the majority of farmers and peasants find themselves being assisted out of poverty? Does the production of soy,sugarcane and palm oil increase employment? Are the crops grown sustainably and without competing with food production? (…)

Globalisation and discounting are closely related. About 90 percent of our clothing is produced in Asia, Central America, Eastern Europe and several countries in Africa. The majority of retailing companies, such as also the discounters Lidl and KiK, buy from these countries. The “Alternative (…)

The fashion industry has always struggled to talk about the living wage in an open and consistent way. Two years ago, brands and retailers said it wasn’t a problem, or that if it was, it was somebody else’s. Last year they agreed that they ought to do something, but hadn’t quite got round to it (…)

In failing to tackle climate change with urgency, rich countries are effectively violating the human rights of millions of the world’s poorest people. Continued excessive greenhouse-gas emissions primarily from industrialised nations are – with scientific certainty – creating floods, droughts, (…)

An alarming number of women soldiers are being sexually abused by their comrades-in-arms, both at war and at home. This fact has received a fair amount of attention lately from researchers and the press — and deservedly so.
But the attention always focuses on the women: where they were when (…)

This booklet addresses the: Benefit of treating sanitation in human rights terms, Legal basis of the right to sanitation, State obligations and standards for differing environments, and Priority actions for governments and other stakeholders.
While there has been some progress on the (…)

ESCR-Net’s Corporate Accountability Working Group is pleased to announce the release of its Collective Report on Business and Human Rights.
Presented directly to Members of the 8th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva during the first week of June 2008, this Collective Report on (…)

A recent judgment of the Israeli High Court of Justice (HCJ) turned more than a few heads when it upheld, in one of the most difficult and hollow decisions in recent years, the legality of the legislative framework governing the imprisonment of "unlawful combatants" from the Gaza Strip. This (…)

The first Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) can be traced back in law to the industrial age, amongst a backdrop of vast improvements in global transportation, rapidly expanding manufacturing industries and emerging notions of free trade. New legal structures were required to accommodate the huge (…)

Tea is the second most popular drink in the world, after water. For a number of developing countries it is an important commodity in terms of jobs and export earnings. Tea production is labour intensive and the industry provides jobs in remote rural areas. Millions of livelihoods around the (…)

When I phoned Aung San Suu Kyi’s home in Rangoon yesterday, I imagined the path to her door that looks down on Inya Lake. Through ragged palms, a trip-wire is visible, a reminder that this is the prison of a woman whose party was elected by a landslide in 1990, a democratic act extinguished by (…)

World leaders owe an apology for failing to deliver on the promise of justice and equality in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), adopted 60 years ago. In the past six decades, many governments have shown more interest in the abuse of power or in the pursuit of political (…)