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Briefings and reports

This section contains briefings and reports published by the Business and Human Rights Centre.

To see briefings in all our languages, switch ON the ‘Show all languages’ toggle at the top of the page or in the menu.

Transition Minerals Tracker: 2025 Global Analysis

Our yearly review underscores the critical importance of a just energy transition guided by three core principles: shared prosperity; robust human rights due diligence and worker, community and defender rights protections; and fair negotiation between business, workers and communities.

Highlighted releases

Justice in the transition: Litigating corporate abuse in the shift to clean energy for all

This year’s analysis of the cases in the Business & Human Rights Centre’s Just Transition Litigation Tracking Tool reveals a growing wave of litigation, with 95 cases across the world brought by rightsholders over human rights abuses in projects linked to the global shift to clean energy. These lawsuits are not a rejection of climate action; they are a demand for a truly just transition.

Videos: Canadian companies in Colombia

Canada’s reputation on the global stage is based on high human rights standards and progressive climate action. Yet in Colombia, communities affected by the operations of these industries report a litany of human rights abuses. This documentary series explores the uncomfortable gap between Canada’s image and its impact abroad, asking what happens when profit is prioritised over people.

Defending rights and realising just economies: Human rights defenders and business (2015-2024)

From January 2015 to December 2024, the Business & Human Rights Centre recorded more than 6,400 attacks across 147 countries against people who voiced concerns about business-related risks or harms. This is close to two attacks on average every day over the past ten years.

“We were treated as if we were machines”: Migrant workers powering Saudi Arabia’s energy transition

Testimony from 34 migrant workers employed on nine renewable energy projects in Saudi Arabia reveals a litany of alleged human rights abuses. This briefing analyses the public human rights commitments of 16 companies linked to these projects and sets out recommendations for the sector.

The missing thread: Workers absent from fashion companies’ climate plans

Our analysis of 65 top fashion brands' climate strategies and direct testimony from garment workers and trade union representatives in Bangladesh and Cambodia reveals companies are driving rapid decarbonisation, yet workers are excluded from both planning and protections for a just transition.

Exploring shared prosperity: Indigenous leadership and partnerships for a just transition

Together with Indigenous Peoples’ Rights International (IPRI), we explore the case for a renewable energy transition that centres Indigenous Peoples’ rights, interests and prosperity, as determined by them, in pursuit of a global transition that is fast because it is fair and sustainable.

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208 results

  • briefing

    Accusations and actions: A decade tracking tech company responses to human rights allegations

    16 Sep 2024

    Despite booming profits and growing influence, tech companies have yet to demonstrate a commitment to transparency and a proactive willingness to address the wide range of harms and human rights abuses associated with their products and services. Over a 10-year period, we made over 700 invitations to over 300 tech companies to respond to human rights-related allegations and their actions to address them.

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    KnowTheChain: Good Practice Guide 2024

    13 Aug 2024

    This Guide is a resource for companies and investors seeking to understand what strong corporate practice and disclosure looks like with respect to a range of key elements of upstream supply chain human rights due diligence. It draws on data collected by KnowTheChain over eight years of benchmarking global multinational companies across three sectors: Apparel & Footwear, Food & Beverage and ICT.

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    From mining to renewable energy: Lessons learnt from benefit sharing legislation for a just transition in Africa

    6 Aug 2024

    The climate crisis necessitates a global transition to renewable energy that is not only fast but also fair: a shift that includes the creation of shared prosperity for the frontline communities being asked to host vast renewable energy installations and transition mineral mines. We examine existing legislative frameworks in Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe that have the potential to help deliver shared prosperity for the communities whose land and resources are crucial for the energy transition.

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    Powering electric vehicles: Human rights impacts of Indonesia's nickel rush

    31 Jul 2024

    Nickel, a key component in electric vehicle batteries, is set to play a crucial role in the shift away from fossil fuels. As Indonesia's nickel mining sector grows to meet the needs of the expanding EV industry, we examine the impacts of nickel mining on two small islands in Southeast Sulawesi: Wawonii and Kabaena.

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    Unjust transition on trial: Communities and workers litigate to shape corporate practice

    10 Jul 2024

    The speed of the energy transition will depend on investment flows and the retention of public trust. Yet the disturbing trend of systemic abuse of communities and workers in renewable energy value chains has given rise to a tide of strategic litigation by communities and workers left with no option but to turn to the courts to defend their rights. These lawsuits result in project delays, “stop orders” and escalating costs - risks which companies and investors can and must avoid through robust human rights due diligence and better project design.

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    Keeping watch: Surveillance companies in Middle East & North Africa

    26 Jun 2024

    We asked 23 companies which allegedly produce or provide surveillance technologies to governments in the MENA region to respond to questions on their corporate transparency and human rights due diligence processes. Only five responded.

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    Just for show: Worker representation in Asia’s garment sector & the role of fashion brands & employers

    19 Jun 2024

    We examine the role of trade unions and alternative representative structures across six major garment-producing countries in South and Southeast Asia - Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - and explore how brands and their suppliers are relying on ineffective representation structures as an alternative to union engagement, undermining freedom of association and collective bargaining, depleting trade unions’ ability to build their membership and contributing to a vicious cycle of poor working conditions in the sector.

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    Who pays for the crisis? May 2024 analysis

    22 May 2024

    Rounding up the key trends at the intersection of labour rights, purchasing practices and supply chain shocks, including analysis of brands’ responses.

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    Transition Minerals Tracker: 2024 Global Analysis

    16 May 2024

    Our annual analysis highlights the urgent need for a just energy transition based on three core principles: shared prosperity; robust human rights due diligence and worker, community and defender rights protections; and fair negotiation between business, workers and communities.

    Read more
  • briefing

    People power under pressure: Human rights defenders & business in 2023

    7 May 2024

    We recorded 630 instances of attacks against people raising concerns about business-related harms in 2023. This is part of a consistent, ongoing pattern of attacks against HRDs protecting our rights and planet globally, with more than 5,300 attacks recorded since January 2015.

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