EFFAT has teamed up with over 80 other trade unions and NGO’s in demanding EU Commissioner-designate for Justice, Didier Reynders, bring forward comprehensive legislation mandating companies to observe and respect human rights and environmental imperatives throughout their global supply, value and operating chains.
We believe it is time for a due diligence framework that ensures companies and financial institutions that operate within the EU – even if simply providing a service or product – are held to account for any abuses and harm in their domestic and global operations. Moreover, by instituting a corporate duty to respect human rights and the environment, companies would have more encouragement to self-check – that is, identify, mitigate and prevent any upstream abuses in their operations themselves at an earlier stage. Finally, and coupled to this, the legislative framework proposed would provide for adequate recourse to justice for victims of corporate abuses.
Thus far, the absence of sufficient oversight in favour of a good-faith reliance on businesses to ‘do the right thing’ has proven wholly unsatisfactory, demonstrably failing to prevent widespread environmental damage and human rights violations. This needs to change. EFFAT, together with our co-signatories and partners, will keep advocating for a Europe with respect for human rights and environmental protections at its core, where businesses cannot continue to abuse fundamental, international standards with impunity.
Read the joint letter here: Joint Letter – Corporate Due Diligence
Link on EFFAT Website
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EFFAT
European Federation of Food Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions
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Maddalena Colombi
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