A Business, Human Rights and Environment Act

Tell the UK Parliament to support a new law against human rights abuses and environmental destruction in supply chains everywhere – a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act.

Add your name to the 128,548 people who have already called for a new UK law!

We’re running a petition to let decision-makers know that: “We need a new law to hold business, finance and the public sector to account when they fail to prevent supply chain human rights abuses and environmental harms.”

We’re collecting signatures as a coalition. That means you can sign the same petition via organisations including Ekō, Anti-Slavery International, Freedom United, Transform Trade and Friends of the Earth. And we make sure to add together all the signatures we collect into a grand total, visible on our homepage.

It’s time to protect our rights from corporate abuse – take action for change by adding your name to our call.

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Campaign resources

A Business, Human Rights and Environment Act: The Clear Case for a New Law

Briefing

This parliamentary briefing argues that we urgently need a new UK law to hold companies to account when they fail to prevent human rights abuses and environmental harms in their global value chains. A Business, Human Rights and Environment Act (BHREA) would: Plug the serious legal gaps that enable companies to profit from the UK’s...

February 26th, 2025

A ‘Business, Human Rights and Environment Act’ – Principal Elements

Partner resource

A coalition of civil society organisations is calling for the introduction a new ‘Business, Human Rights and Environment Act’: a UK ‘mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence’ law, based on the duties to prevent tax evasion and bribery found in the Criminal Finances Act 2017 and the Bribery Act 2010 – as called for...

October 19th, 2021 | by ABColombia and Partners

A Business, Human Rights and Environment Act: The environmental case for a new law

Briefing

This parliamentary briefing explains how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act would protect the environment and contribute to achieving a just transition in global value chains. The briefing is part of a series of parliamentary briefings on a new Business, Human Rights and Environment Act. For more information, see this briefing on the general...

April 17th, 2024

Reports

Bridging the gap: How could a UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act have made a difference?

Report

This report documents how well-known UK companies, financial institutions and public bodies have been and continue to be connected to human rights abuses, worker exploitation and environmental harm at home and abroad. These abuses are happening via the companies’ own operations, products and services, and across their global value chains. Access to justice for those...

November 28th, 2023

Uyghur forced labour in murky value chains – the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (China)

Briefing

The risk of forced labour in the value chains of cotton products from apparel to home furnishings exists at all production stages, from cotton picking to final manufacturing processes: it is estimated that one in five cotton garments on the global marketplace is connected to forced labour of Uyghur workers at some stage of its...

November 28th, 2023

Leicester’s sweat shops: abuses in Boohoo’s value chains (UK)

Briefing

When the Sunday Times published an investigation alleging labour exploitation, deplorable working conditions, and illegally low rates of pay – as low as £3.50 an hour – in Leicester-based factories making clothes for Boohoo, it shocked the UK. Find out how a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act could have made a difference. Find this...

May 30th, 2023

News and analysis

How can growth work for everyone? – CJC partners host parliamentary event

Update

The UK Government has committed to delivering a programme of change based on security, fairness and opportunity for all. This includes promises to ‘kickstart’ economic growth in a way that provides good jobs and better living standards, make the UK a clean energy superpower and build an NHS fit for the future. All these goals...

January 30th, 2025 | by CJC Team

Indigenous and environmental defenders call on the UK to protect their land and livelihoods

Update

In November, Peace Brigades International UK (PBI UK) and Forest Peoples Programme organised a pivotal week of advocacy in the UK. The initiative brought together a cross-regional group of human rights defenders, Indigenous and Afro-descendent leaders and community representatives from six countries—Indonesia, Colombia, Kenya, Liberia, Mexico, and the Wampís Nation in Peru. These individuals are on...

December 20th, 2024 | by CJC Team

Why the UK Needs a strong Business, Human Rights and Environment Act: Lessons from the EU’s advances and shortcomings

Analysis

In 2019, the Corporate Justice Coalition launched a campaign for a UK-specific Business, Human Rights and Environment Act (BHREA). This campaign emerged from the recognition that voluntary measures and existing regulations were insufficient to prevent and address corporate abuses of human rights and environmental standards. The BHREA seeks to prevent human rights and environmental abuse...

November 19th, 2024 | by CJC Team