Shubhaa Srinivasan was recently invited to present at the African Regional Workshop on Transnational Corporations and Their Responsibility for Human Rights. The conference was organised by a group of European NGOs and was focused on
creating a dialogue between civil society organisations in the African region involved in supporting community claims against multinational corporations and European and American NGOs and legal consultants.
Conference participants included Misereor, Bread for the World (Germany), Earthrights (US), Sherpa (France), International Federation for Human Rights and African civil society organisations and lawyers from Ghana, Sierra Leon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Cameroon and South Africa.
One of the topics of discussion at the conference was the implications of the UK Government’s proposal to change the civil costs regime on business related human rights cases and the very real barriers that would be faced by victims of corporate wrongdoing in trying to hold businesses accountable for their harmful business conduct across the globe. The discussions led to a decision to write a petition to the UK Government setting out the concerns that were raised at the conference by participants.