Business and Human Rights

Thanks you so much to those of you who sent letters and postcards to the President of Microsoft Canada urging the company to investigate whether child labour and other human rights abuses are found in their cobalt supply chain. 

Thanks to you and our supporters around the world Microsoft is beginning to bow to pressure. 

The company released a report in October 2018 setting out the steps they’ve taken to map their cobalt supply chain. While this is progress, Microsoft has a long way to go to meet our concerns and international standards.

The company has yet to tell us exactly how they’re identifying, preventing and addressing potential human rights abuses in their cobalt supply chain.

We’re halting our action for the moment, but we won’t let Microsoft rest until they follow up on their commitments, and there is real evidence of change on the ground in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Want a job at Google?
(To apply you’ll need good coding skills… and absolutely no morals).

watch video

In 2010, the largest search engine in the world made a promise not to support China’s censorship of the internet. But it was recently revealed that Google is preparing to break its promise.

Google has been working on a secretive program to re-launch its search engine in China code-named Google Dragonfly - even if it means cooperating with the Chinese government’s repressive online censorship and surveillance.

It’s been four long years since the Mount Polley copper mine breached its tailings pond, cutting a 9-kilometre path of destruction from the mine site to Quesnel Lake.

Path of desctruction: tailing spill down Hazeltine Creek. Credit: Richard Holmes 

In the days following the disaster, long-time area residents and Indigenous peoples mourned together for the many species of trout and salmon, insect and animal that lived along Hazeltine Creek and in Quesnel Lake.

Day 5 of the Yuct Ne Senxiymetkwe Camp, established by Secwepemc women to bring together indigenous and settler commmunities in the wake of the August 2014 disaster. Credit: Kieran Oud 

Photo: Solidarity image, with members of CCDA.

Attacks on defenders in Guatemala are rapidly escalating. In four short weeks seven human rights defenders have been killed. Three men from the Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) and four men from the Campesino Development Committee (CODECA) were violently murdered.

It's important we call on authorities to stop this wave of killings - but also at times of crisis, the need to show meaningful solidarity with defenders becomes ever more necessary.

Steps you can take to show solidarity

1.      Write a message of solidarity and encouragement to show these brave activists that they are not alone or forgotten. The world is watching! You could make a card or drawing or simply hold up a sign as in the examples below. Take a close-up photo of yourself holding your solidarity message in English or Spanish and share it directly with the CCDA or CODECA:

A groundbreaking research project by Amnesty International has exposed evidence of serious negligence by oil giants Shell and Eni, whose irresponsible approach to oil spills in the Niger Delta is exacerbating an environmental crisis.   Through the Decoders network, an innovative platform developed by Amnesty International to crowdsource human rights research, the organization enlisted thousands of supporters and activists to collect data about oil spills in the Niger Delta. Their findings were then analyzed by Amnesty International’s researchers and verified by Accufacts, an independent pipelines expert.   According to this publicly available data, Amnesty International found that Shell and Eni are taking weeks to respond to reports of spills and publishing misleading information about the cause and severity of spills, which may result in communities not receiving compensation.  

Rafael Maldonado is a passionate advocate for justice, Indigenous rights and a healthy environment. He defends people who are attacked or criminalized for trying to protect their lands and waters from unwanted mining, hydro, or agricultural projects. In Santa Rosa, a rich agricultural region of south-eastern Guatemala, he defends the rights of people who worry that a Canadian silver mine is polluting and drying up their water sources. Several people in the communities surrounding the mine have been killed, shot, attacked, threatened and thrown in jail on false charges. 

Because of his work at the Centre for Social, Environmental and Legal Action, to defend their rights and support their cause, he has been threatened, his colleagues shot, robbed or killed, and has had shots fired into a car outside his house. Amnesty International is very concerned about his safety. 

Ronal David Barillas Díaz, a community leader and human rights defender was killed on the morning of 9 January in Taxisco, Santa Rosa, Guatemala. His attackers got out of a vehicle, walked to the newspaper and food stall where he worked and shot him at least six times, before fleeing the scene.

Amnesty International utterly condemns this attack and urges the Guatemalan authorities to initiate a thorough, independent and impartial investigation into the death of the human rights defender and to put in place, without delay, a comprehensive public policy for the protection of human rights defenders in the country.