Human rights defenders play a critical role in promoting corporate respect for human rights. Through their work, defenders help to identify, prevent, mitigate, and ensure accountability for corporate human rights abuses. Whether coming from, living in, representing, or supporting affected communities, defenders are both directly affected by, and key stakeholders regarding, the human rights impacts of business. Despite this, the incidence of attacks, threats, and harassment against defenders working on business and human rights issues is on the rise. Defenders around the world face significant risks to their lives and livelihoods on a daily basis, as they work under the threat of extrajudicial killings, abductions, surveillance, criminalisation, and intimidation as a result of their efforts to defend human rights in the face of business interests. These risks have been recognised by various United Nations (UN) and regional human rights bodies.

Direct Link to Full 36-Page 2016 Report

Извор: WUNRN – 24.06.2016