FAQ on Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation in Canada (mHREDD)
The Canada brand has a human rights problem
For years, Canadian multinationals have been implicated in serious human rights abuses and environmental damage around the globe. The communities and workers who suffer these harms are often unable to access justice or remedy, while human rights and environmental defenders who stand up to powerful corporations frequently face violence, intimidation or criminalization.
These abuses have persisted despite decades of public pressure and endless corporate commitments to voluntary codes of responsible business conduct. For over a decade, the Canadian government has explicitly “expected and encouraged” Canadian companies to respect human rights throughout their global operations. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, adopted 1 unanimously in 2011, set a clear global standard outlining the responsibilities of businesses to prevent, address and remedy harms caused. Yet in the absence of binding rules that enshrine these principles into Canadian law, companies are too often failing to deliver on their responsibilities. The risks and vulnerabilities faced by overseas communities have only worsened with the global COVID-19 health crisis.
Workers, women, Indigenous peoples, human rights and environmental defenders, and other marginalized communities harmed by powerful companies can wait no longer for Canada to take action to address corporate abuse. Canada has a duty to act, and urgently.
CNCA’s Human Rights and Accountability: Non-Negotiable Campaign
In response to reports of serious harms linked to the global operations and supply chains of Canadian companies, the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) developed model human rights and environmental due diligence legislation for adoption in Canada. The CNCA’s model looks to make legally enforceable an expectation that has existed for a long time: that corporations respect human rights and the environment abroad. This document answers some of the most frequently asked questions about the CNCA’s proposed model legislation.
A bill recently introduced in Parliament, Bill C-262, contains all the elements of the CNCA’s model legislation that are described here.
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