Over 80% of European Citizens support the new European environmental and Human Rights due diligence law

João Victor Stuart

International Justice and Human Rights researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

According to a recent survey driven by the European Coalition for Corporate Justice, more than 80 % of the citizens of nine EU member countries, including Germany and Spain, wish for a mandatory law on Human Rights and environmental issues to halt the increasing level of violations provoked by the irresponsible actions of European corporations in developing and under-developed countries. The survey revealed that these people want to allow victims of abuses committed by companies to access justice and hold the companies responsible accountable by taking them to courts in Europe. In that sense, the upcoming environmental and Human Rights due diligence law aims to bind all enterprises that operate in Europe, irrespectively of their sector and budget, forcing them to add Human Rights and environmental assessments impacts in their value chain. The European Commission expects to announce a draft law on ‘Sustainable Corporate Governance’ at the end of 2021. In a petition earlier this year, 500 thousand citizens and over 200 organisations called on the EU for this law to have teeth, yet business organisations are lobbying fiercely against it. 

Sources and further reading:

Overwhelming public support for EU law to hold companies liable for human rights violations and environmental harms October 13, 2021, European Coalition for Corporate Justice, https://corporatejustice.org/news/poll-shows-overwhelming-public-support-for-eu-law-to-hold-companies-liable/