'Final warning: death threats and killings of human rights defenders. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor', 24 December 2020

Businesses also have responsibilities to protect human rights defenders, and many defenders are killed after protesting negative human rights impacts of business ventures. In too many cases, businesses are also shirking their responsibilities to prevent attacks on defenders or are even perpetrators of such attacks... Human rights defenders working on some issues appear to be particularly vulnerable to attack. They include environmental human rights defenders, those protesting land grabs or those defending the rights of people, including indigenous peoples, by objecting to Governments that are imposing business projects on communities without free, prior and informed consent...

In 2019, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre tracked 572 attacks against human rights defenders focused on business-related activities... FMO...has committed to improving its pre-investment due diligence activities to look systematically at contextual risks, including risks to human rights defenders... The International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group has issued a statement stressing the principle of zero tolerance on reprisals, and more recently, it has issued guidance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic... Del Monte Pacific Limited published a report, in which it stated that it would not tolerate threats, harassment or attacks against human rights and environmental defenders... The Adidas Group has also recognized the importance of protecting human rights defenders, and it publicly declared that it would raise the cases of targeted defenders with Governments... Businesses should also intervene when threats are made against defenders, in order to prevent them from escalating into attacks...