“In North Macedonia, hundreds of factories make clothes and shoes for Europe’s big brands. It is no secret how harsh the working conditions are in these factories, but the widespread violations of the labour law have long gone unchallenged.”Read the full article
Twenty years ago, cotton growing employed almost 20 per cent of the Syrian population. Ravaged by the war, the sector is now being relaunched, particularly in the Idlib region, under the control of an autonomous government led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. But the latest harvest [...]Read the full article
After a 16-year legal battle, a court has ruled to dismiss the case of chlordecone poisoning in the French Antilles. This pesticide, used in the banana plantations from 1972 to 1993, despite its proven toxicity, continues to claim lives. But, be it in Paris or the French overseas departments, [...]Read the full article
Following a decade of struggle, pensioners from Africa’s largest alumina plant and their families are finally able to benefit from their social security rights.Read the full article
Laurie Parsons:“Contemporary global supply chains increase environmental risks through greenhouse-gas emissions while siphoning off the resources needed to deal with them. Rather than environmental progress, this is environmental trade.”Read the full article
Vicente Salas:“Many of the proposed initiatives for change and groundbreaking reform start from a recognition of the limitations of nation states to act in cooperation. Instead, these reforms seek to turn companies/legal entities into the implementing arms of public objectives and [...]Read the full article
Gabon’s timber industry, which employs nearly 7 per cent of the country’s working population, is struggling to adapt to often burdensome environmental policies adopted by the international community.Read the full article
The new directive makes possible EU-wide class actions for breaches of 66 different EU directives and regulations, from legislation related to medical devices to the EU’s seminal 2018 GDPR privacy law.Read the full article
For over 20 years, states have been trying to reach a new agreement on a treaty to protect the high seas. But finalising the text, called for by NGOs and environmentalists, is proving difficult, given the wealth of resources the deep sea holds for research and [...]Read the full article
Alan McClay:“Success or failure with regards to the future of the world’s land and its ability to sustain life is one determining factor: soil health. The earth beneath our feet is so ubiquitous that it is easy to take it for granted, but it literally provides the building bricks of [...]Read the full article
With impoverished populations regularly engaging in artisanal gold mining, fatal accidents are becoming increasingly commonplace. Critics point the finger at negligent mining companies and inadequate oversight legislation.Read the full article
Faced with a series of immense challenges, Haitian trade unions are fighting to secure higher wages and better working conditions for textile workers.Read the full article
Walton Pantland:Multinational corporations dominate the global economy, but labour laws exist at national level, with no international body to defend workers from violations in supply chains. How do we seek justice and remedy for the world’s [...]Read the full article
From non-binding to mandatory standards, are we any closer to ensuring that companies respect environmental, human and labour rights standards in their production chains, in the EU and beyond?Read the full article
Vietnam’s nearly 4,500-year-old tradition of sericulture continues to provide a livelihood to numerous families. This time-honoured tradition is mostly carried about by women.Read the full article
The globalised and financialised agri-food system not only has a serious socio-environmental impact; it is also tremendously inefficient and a risky bet if the aim is to guarantee food supply.Read the full article
It is the second most used resource after water and, like water, it could soon be in short supply. Sand is essential to the society we live in. But current demand is so high that it is being used faster than it can be replenished.Read the full article
In the DRC, slaughterhouses lack the equipment required to ensure that the cows slaughtered there are in good health, which poses a danger to both consumers and slaughterhouse workers.Read the full article
Arnaud Zacharie:The existential crisis facing the WTO, which is holding its 12th ministerial conference from 12 to 15 June, is an opportunity to reform it to make world trade more consistent with sustainable development objectives.Read the full article
Described as the worst fishing technique in the world, bottom trawling has been the subject of heated debate for decades. But solutions are at hand to try to limit the impacts of this practice.Read the full article
Rising temperatures and adverse weather conditions affecting Europe made 2021 a particularly tough year for bees. The honey harvest has been badly hit. Pesticide poisoning and unfair competition from third countries are adding to the problems faced by [...]Read the full article
An estimated one in three products purchased online is returned within three months of purchase. This is the flip side of mass consumption: mass returns. It is easy and mostly free. But someone always pays.Read the full article
In response to growing demand for the precious metals needed to fuel energy transition, companies are developing technology for exploring and mining the ocean floor and applying for licenses to do so. But international legislation protecting these ecosystems is still [...]Read the full article
In Los Angeles, the capital of the US garment industry, seamstresses, senators and garment factory owners are teaming up in support of a bill that would put an end to the exploitative practices that plague the fashion industry.Read the full article
Joseph Baines:Commodity traders wreak havoc on global markets and profit from ecological and social devastation. Can they be stopped?Read the full article
While Africa, led by Côte d’Ivoire, currently produces 90 per cent of the world’s raw cashew nuts, less than 15 per cent are processed on the continent. The majority of production is exported to Asia. Relocating cashew nut processing to African countries would mean an important new source of [...]Read the full article
Faced with mounting poverty, local officials in France are subsidising food aid associations on the condition that they get their supplies from local producers, foreshadowing the idea of “social security for food”.Read the full article
Gold prices have risen steadily over the past two years, reaching an all-time high in mid-2020. In the Brazilian Amazon, men come to seek their fortunes on forest land that the federal government should protect, but which, more and more, is succumbing to the pressures of [...]Read the full article
European chocolate makers will make a significant portion of their annual turnover around Easter time thanks in part to cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s leading producer. But this ‘brown gold’ is the product of an environmentally destructive industry with precarious working [...]Read the full article
The issue of the materials used to produce low-carbon technologies is of fundamental importance and has been the subject of widespread discussion. The water consumption needed for the extraction of minerals and the manufacture of these technologies is also essential, yet far less [...]Read the full article
Agathe Smyth:A new regulation came into force on 1 January 2021 with the aim of changing practices around the importation of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold to the EU.Read the full article
Can the inclusion of social or environmental objectives in a company’s articles of association help to make them more virtuous? Whilst it may help promote a shift in business mindsets, it may also amount to little more than ‘fairwashing’.Read the full article
Chloé Maurel:Every year, US$88.6 billion leaves Africa in the form of illicit capital flight, according to the UN. Africa is affected more than all other continents, making it a net creditor to the rest of the world, contrary to the popular belief of an Africa aided by the countries of the [...]Read the full article
Aruna Kashyap :Brands that truly support workers’ rights in their supply chains should stop relying on social audits to drive labour compliance, especially regarding wages and working hours.Read the full article
While the rejection of animal suffering remains the most deeply rooted and the most decisive conviction, anti-speciesism now also takes into account climate change caused by factory farming as well as infectious diseases of animal origin, zoonoses, of which the Covid-19 pandemic is the most [...]Read the full article