Case Profiles
The Resource Centre continually tracks lawsuits and other legal actions relating to businesses' human rights performance. We regularly select a number of these lawsuits to form the basis of a Case Profile. These Profiles present a concise summary of each lawsuit to inform lawyers and legal advocates of the key facts, legal proceedings, involved parties, allegations and legal arguments.
Our Case Profiles are selected based on multiple factors, including the salience of the alleged abuse, the nature of the litigation strategy, and the potential for setting legal precedent regularly. The cases we profile fall into three categories: lawsuits brought (1) against companies to redress human rights abuses; (2) against States for failing to regulate company behavior, and (3) by companies against human rights defenders to silence and intimidate them.
Case profiles under categories (1) and (2) are searchable through our Lawsuits Database. Case profiles that fall under category (3) are listed further below.
New Case Profiles
Lawsuit against labour union president (re inciting social unrest, Cambodia)
In April 2020, Superl Holdings filed criminal charges against Cambodian local union president Soy Sros, alleging she incited social unrest by alerting the public on Facebook to Superl’s plan to dismiss workers at its factory in Phnom Penh in defiance of government-issued COVID-19 guidance. Following extensive media coverage of the case, Superl Holdings agreed to drop the criminal charges.
Lawsuit against Formosa plastics (re marine pollution in Vietnam)
In June 2019, nearly 8,000 Vietnamese fisherfolk filed a lawsuit in Taiwan against Formosa Plastics Group over a marine disaster caused by toxic industrial waste discharged by a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics, which resulted in massive devastation to the Vietnamese fish population and interfered with the fisherfolk’s livelihoods.
Lawsuit against Anglo American South Africa (re lead poisoning in Zambia)
In October 2020 UK law firm Leigh Day and Johannesburg attorneys Mbuyisa Moleele filed a class action against Anglo American South Africa Ltd in the Johannesburg High Court on behalf of Zambian communities living next to the Kabwe lead mine, alleging that Anglo American failed to take adequate steps to prevent lead poisoning from 1925 to 1974.
Case profiles of lawsuits against companies
Lawsuits Database
Search through our 200+ case profiles of lawsuits against companies to hold them accountable for human rights abuses.
Case profiles of lawsuits by companies against advocates
- closed Appleby lawsuit against BBC & The Guardian (re Paradise Papers)
- closed Apple lawsuit against Attac (re tax avoidance protests)
- closed California Independent Petroleum Association lawsuit (re change in drilling permissions, USA), para la versión en español, haga clic acá
- open Energix lawsuit against Al-Marsad (re windfarm project, Golan Heights)
- closed Energy Transfer lawsuit (re Dakota Access Pipeline, USA)
- Inversiones Cobra & CXI lawsuit (re illegal invasion of land & burning of palm oil, Guatemala); para la versión en español, haga clic acá
- Mineral Sands Resources lawsuits (re Tormin mine, So. Africa)
- Murray Energy lawsuit (re John Oliver’s alleged defamatory TV sketch, USA)
- Natural Fruit Company lawsuits (re defamation suits against Andy Hall, Thailand)
- closed Raub Australian Gold Mining lawsuit (re defamation by villagers, Malaysia); pour la version en français, cliquez ici
- Resolute Forest Products Lawsuits (re alleged racketeering and defamation by environmental organizations, USA)
- Socfin lawsuits (re defamation by Green Scenery, Sierra Leone)
- Socfin & Socapalm lawsuit (re defamation by NGOs & media outlets, France); pour la version en français, cliquez ici; para la version en espanol, haga clic acá
- Superl Holdings lawsuit against labour union president (re inciting social unrest, Cambodia)
- Thammakaset lawsuit against former workers (re defamation on labour conditions, Thailand)
- Technoprivod lawsuit against environmental NGO (re defamation, Ukraine)
- Tourah Cement lawsuit (re workers’ prison charge for illegal protest, Egypt)
- Vinci lawsuits (re Sherpa's allegations of forced labour in Qatar); pour la version en français, cliquez ici