Puspa Pokharel on Interface between the Judiciary and National Human Rights Institutions (Brill book chapter)

"Interface between the Judiciary and National Human Rights Institutions: A Means to Ensure Effective Remedies for Business-Related Human Rights Abuses?"
Puspa Pokharel (PhD Candidate)
in Andreas R. Ziegler (ed), Damiano Canapa (ed), and Maria Izabel Cardozo (ed), Business and Human Rights (Brill, March 2025),Chapter 14, pp. 387-406

Introduction: This chapter deals with the means of interface between the judiciary and National Human Rights Institutions (“nhris”) to ensure effective remedies to the victims of business-related human rights abuses. While nhris are considered as one of the state-based non-judicial grievance mechanisms for redressing the human rights abuses by business enterprises, lack of enforcement of their recommendations questions the overall effectiveness of the mechanism. This chapter thus looks into the fundamental relationship, including the interconnection and interaction, between the judiciary and nhris to ensure the enforceability of the nhris’ recommendations to have an actual outcome for the victims.

In the first section, the chapter provides the general background as to how nhris have been incorporated within the business and human rights regime and what are their expected roles within the regime. For the matter, the United Nations Guiding Principles, 2011 (“ungps”) is the primary instrument considered for the study. The second section deals with the concept and ways of interface between the judiciary and nhris. It explores the possible avenues to ensure the enforceability of the nhris’ recommendations. The third section considers the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (“nhrct”) and National Human Rights Commission of Nepal (“nhrcn”) as case studies. The associated laws that provide grounds for the interface between these two state institutions are identified and analyzed. The chapter also explores the possibilities of interface for cases that have extra-territorial implications. While doing so, the possible challenges associated with them and recommendations are also discussed.

CCPL Submission on the Review of the Environment, Social and Governance Guide (HK Exchanges & Clearing)

"Submission for Public Consultation on the Review of the Environmental, Social and Governance Guide"
Farzana Aslam
Centre for Comparative and Public Law
September 2015

Introduction: The Centre for Comparative and Public Law (CCPL) at the University of Hong Kong welcomes the opportunity to comment on the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEx) Consultation Paper on the Review of the Environmental, Social and Governance Reporting Guide (‘the Consultation Paper’). CCPL commends the HKEx’s desire to improve the quality, sustainability and reputation of the Hong Kong market, and to align Hong Kong with international best practice related to sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting. CCPL broadly supports most of the proposals put forward by the HKEx in its Consultation Paper including the need to upgrade many of the environmental and social disclosure requirements to require issuers to report on a ‘comply and explain’ basis... Click here to download the full submission.

Subsidies to Big Oil Unjustified and Need to Stop

Inna Amesheva, PhD candidate

"The Fossil Fuel Industry's Continued Chokehold on State Resources"

Eco-Business

2 February 2015

Inna Amesheva

According to International Energy Agency (IEA) figures, in 2012 global fossil fuel subsidies amounted to $544 billion. On the other hand, the financial support provided to the renewable energy sector was under 20 percent of that, or $101 billion. The estimate of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for oil, coal and gas subsidies is much higher, putting the total nearer $2 trillion. The differences stem from the uncertain definition of what a ‘subsidy’ represents, but in any case, the figures are striking. Taking a national perspective, in the United States alone, reliable assessments of yearly fossil fuel subsidies range from $10 billion to $52 billion per annum. This number exceeds by 5-6 times the amount spent on renewable energy generation.

     This substantial chunk of the government’s revenue would be much better spent financing socially beneficial projects such as building new schools, hospitals and badly-needed infrastructure. In addition, fossil fuel subsidies, if diverted to the renewable energy sector, would serve a longer-term, more sustainable purpose that would not only provide for a cleaner environment, but would also reduce dependence on ‘dirty’ fuels that exacerbate the effects of climate change....  Click here to read the full article.  Ms Inna Amesheva is a PhD candidate in public international law in the Faculty of Law, supervised by Dr. James Fry.  She wrote this article as part of the requirements of Farzana Aslam's LLM course, Business and Human Rights.

Dark Truth About Chocolate Production

"The dark truth about chocolate production"
South China Morning Post
10 December 2014
Brooke Zheng (LLMHR student)
Legions of chocolate consumers should exert pressure on producers to stop the exploitation of child farm workers
At this time of year especially, it's worth stopping to consider how your gift of chocolate is made. For all the pleasure the eating of this food brings, its production often means a life of misery for the children in West Africa who harvest the cocoa beans - an essential ingredient - in hazardous conditions.While cocoa is consumed mainly by people in developed countries, some 70 per cent of it is produced in Africa. And the world wants more: recently, the world's biggest chocolate companies warned of a chocolate deficit by 2020. With increasing demand for chocolate, more children will be pushed into the labour force on cocoa farms. According to a 2011 report, some 1.8 million children, aged from five to 17, were working on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast and Ghana. Many are forced to work long hours, applying chemicals without protective equipment. Their rights to education are also largely denied; around 40 per cent of the working children on Ivorian cocoa farms were not enrolled in school...  Click here to read the full article.  The article was based on work done in Farzana Aslam's Business and Human Rights course.