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As the European Union moves forward on mandatory company due diligence legislation to place different sets of legal obligations on companies, several EU member states are obstructing the inclusion of protection for the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. 

On 23 February 2022, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a directive on corporate sustainability due diligence. The proposal aims to foster sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour throughout global value chains.

The UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs conducted a consultation on secondary legislation to support implementation on the due diligence provisions in the Environment Act 2021.

This Open Letter is urging consumer goods companies to fully disclose and explain its process of ongoing supply chain due diligence with regard to Energy & Palma, an Ecuadorian Palm Oil company.

Household names including Nestlé, PepsiCo, Wilmar and Unilever and associated global financial institutions and investors continue to ‘turn a blind eye’ to human rights abuses in their palm oil supply chains, finds a new report out today.

Combatting the human rights violations associated with commodity value chains is an ongoing struggle. A decade ago the Human Rights Council endorsed the creation and adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which aimed

New human rights due diligence legislation and practices should result in positive human rights outcomes for all rightsholders. To assist policymakers and businesses in understanding key elements of effective due diligence on collective land rights, FPP has published a new guide – Stepping Up: Protecting collective land rights through corporate

The RSPO has upheld that Peruvian palm oil miller OLPESA must not buy or process palm from deforested Indigenous lands, which were converted to a plantation which the RSPO condemned in 2016. However, its decision fails to dispel the spectre of human rights violations and large-scale deforestation from agroindustrial supply chains given the limited scope of the RSPO’s own standards.

This manual, through a series of concepts and guidelines, seeks to contribute to the safe exercise of the right to indigenous justice, prioritising the resolution of conflicts through traditional and peaceful mechanisms, and without contemplating violence or other types of aggression that could be used against them, whether through criminalisation by the state justice system or other types of harassment.

Industrialised plantations, State-sponsored resettlement schemes, integrationist government social policies, combined with land tenure systems which fail to protect customary rights, create a deadly cocktail threatening the survival of Indonesia’s indigenous peoples.

In this compendium, 11 indigenous and human rights rights organisations from across the globe reiterated their calls on the key components that EU lawmakers should address in developing new legal instruments to regulate corporations and supply chains, including the elements it requires to be effective in holding companies and the finance industry to account.

24 Indonesian indigenous and human rights organisations, and Forest Peoples Programme, have 

Indigenous leaders from Africa and South America have spoken to members of the UK parliament about the need to prioritise the rights of indigenous peoples in UK legislative proposals on sustainable commodity supply chains, and to ensure that British laws hold UK companies and financiers accountable to affec

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has granted precautionary measures to the indigenous Shipibo-Konibo community Santa Clara de Uchunya and to  the Federation of Native Communities of Ucayali, in the Peruvian Amazon.

Since 2004, the lands and resin forests of the Toba Batak community of Ompu Ronggur have been cleared and replaced by eucalyptus plantations of PT Toba Pulp Lestari [TPL], a pulp company owned by Singapore-based Raja Garuda Mas Group.

Ompu Ronggur, a community of the Toba Batak, a highland people of North Sumatra with an ancient tradition of resin tapping from their agroforests, found in 2004 that all of their traditional territory had been allotted to a pulp and paper company, Toba Pulp Lestari, for establishing Eucalyptus plantations.

Oil company GeoPark Peru S.A.C., which operated Lot 64 overlapping Wampis and Achuar territories, is leaving. The Indigenous Peoples welcomed this news with enthusiasm after fighting for years to defend their lands and the negative impacts of the company’s presence. They are demanding annulment of the oil lot to avoid further companies appearing.

The Chilean oil company GeoPark Peru S.A.C. has irrevocably withdrawn from the Lot 64 Licence Contract in Loreto, Peru. In the statement by Petroperu it was noted that the company’s withdrawal was because of contractual terms due to a “force majeure” situation on the petroleum lot.

Fifteen Indonesian and international NGOs have signed a press statement calling for Korindo Group to respect human rights, and for the district police to investigate the allegations against the company.

Our research reveals that ‘ground-truthing’ can strengthen due diligence processes, thereby mitigating the risk of harmful impacts on human rights and the environment. It can reduce related reputational damage to companies, and positively influence behaviour.