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A Deadly Ring of Coal
15 years ago, when the Mozambican government signed a contract with mining giant VALE, almost everybody in Mozambique be...
11 March, 2022Principles for EU legislation to effectively regulate corporations throughout their global value chains
Mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) has been proposed at EU level to regulate the human right...
24 February, 2022How we defeated Shell: A do-it-yourself manual for climate litigation
On May 26, 2021, we won the Climate Case against Shell. The judge ruled in this lawsuit that Shell must reduce its CO2 e...
09 November, 2021Global South states and civil society keep up momentum to regulate transnational corporations under international human rights law
From 25 to 29 October United Nations member states continued the negotiations to elaborate an international Legally Bind...
02 November, 2021States resume historic UN negotiations amidst growing consensus on the need for binding regulations on transnational corporations and human rights
Today, United Nations member states resume negotiations in the seventh session of the Open-ended intergovernmental worki...
26 October, 2021Global campaign statement on the 3rd draft of the binding treaty
Release of the “third revised draft” during the negotiation by the Open-ended Intergovernmental Working Group on the...
07 September, 2021Shell’s appeal confirms its lack of commitment to tackling climate change
THE HAGEUE/AMSTERDAM, 20 JULY 2021 Shell's decision to appeal sends the "wrong signal" according to Milieudefensie’s ...
20 July, 202150 years of fighting for environmental justice
Our 50th Anniversary is an opportunity to assess our contributions to environmental justice, learn from our history, ana...
15 June, 2021“How we took on one of the world’s biggest polluters and won”
In a monumental victory for our planet and climate justice, a Dutch court has held a corporation liable for causing da...
02 June, 2021Historic victory: judge forces Shell to drastically reduce CO2 emissions.
The Hague, 26 May 2021 - For the first time in history, a judge has held a corporation liable for causing dangerous clim...
26 May, 2021Time for a People’s Vaccine to tackle Covid-19 with justice and equity
This week, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) held special meetings to discuss a temporary waiver of intellectual proper...
07 May, 2021COVAX: A global multistakeholder group that poses political and health risks to developing countries and multilateralism
Covid-19 has given rise to many challenges, one of which is a global vaccine distribution solution. From a human rights...
07 April, 2021Fruits of Resistance in Brazil
Just past Porto Alegre’s Redenção park, two blocks towards the river, sits the CaSanAT building. A colorful single...
19 March, 2021Covid-19: The peoples’ path from crisis to recovery
What impact has the Covid-19 pandemic had on the peoples, communities and allies that Friends of the Earth works with? H...
05 March, 202113 years is too long for victims of Shell’s oil spills to wait for justice.
On Friday 29th January 2021, justice prevailed for the people of the oil-soaked Niger Delta. After a thirteen-year strug...
11 February, 2021Justice at last – Dutch court orders Shell to compensate Nigerian farmers for oil spill harm.
"Victims of environmental pollution, land grabbing, or exploitation now have a better chance to win a legal battle again...
05 February, 2021Shell awaits judgement as historic climate case hearings conclude in the Hague.
AMSTERDAM, 17 December 2020 - The business model of one of the world's biggest oil companies, Shell, hangs in the balanc...
17 December, 2020Taking Shell to court: groundbreaking Dutch climate litigation case begins.
AMSTERDAM, 30 November 2020 - The groundbreaking Dutch climate case against Shell reaches the courtroom this December, w...
30 November, 2020Despite COVID19 limitations, civil society drives momentum for historic UN binding treaty.
The sixth round of negotiations of the United Nations (UN) Open Ended Inter-governmental Working Group (OEIGWG) mandated...
04 November, 2020Oil company Total back in Court for human rights violations in Uganda
On Wednesday 28 October, 10:30 am, the appeal hearing against oil giant Total will start in Versailles Court of Appeal, ...
27 October, 2020Stop corporations profiting from the pandemic. Stop ISDS.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest health and economic crisis in a generation. Some governments are taking extraordina...
19 October, 2020Second revised draft of UN binding treaty has “lost its soul”
The member organisations of the Global Campaign to Reclaim People's Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impu...
02 September, 2020Principles for a Just Recovery from the COVID-19 crisis
The COVID-19 crisis is the result of an economic system that prioritises profits over peoples’ rights and the enviro...
25 August, 2020The military model destroying the Brazilian Amazon
“Scorched land is basically vacant land, it has nothing on it. This allows speculation to come in to play. Forested ...
06 July, 2020Gas Rush, Human Rights Abuses, Climate Devastation, Insurgent Attacks, Covid Hotspot
Cabo Delgado needs our support and solidarity. The gas industry is ravaging the northernmost region of Mozambique, as tr...
04 June, 2020Stop all trade and investment treaty negotiations during COVID-19 crisis and focus on access to medical supplies and saving lives
Dear World Trade Organization Members, A new coronavirus has caused a COVID-19 pandemic that has spread across nearly a...
21 April, 2020COVID-19 crisis is a wake up call for system change
Friends of the Earth expresses its deep concern and solidarity as the world faces the COVID-19 crisis, which is already ...
15 April, 2020Dutch court opens Shell climate case to public showdown
AMSTERDAM, 8 April 2020 — The spotlight will now be firmly on the Shell climate case, instigated by Friends of the E...
08 April, 2020Total abuses in Uganda: French High Court of Justice declares itself incompetent in favour of the Commercial Court
January 30, 2020 - The Nanterre High Court has handed down its decision on the summary proceedings brought by Friends of...
30 January, 2020Total in court for human rights violations in Uganda: Historic hearing in France under the duty of vigilance law.
The organizations are suing the oil giant on account of its activities in Uganda. Over two years of investigations have ...
16 December, 2019Carbon Markets at COP25, Madrid: A Threat to People, Politics, and Planet
In December 2019, the international community gathers for the 25th UN climate conference (COP25) in Madrid, Spain. Carbo...
26 November, 2019Shell’s reply to court summons in historic climate case shows its stubborn refusal to stop destroying the climate
AMSTERDAM, 12 November 2019 Today Friends of the Earth Netherlands received Shell’s long awaited response to the lega...
13 November, 2019Oil company Total faces historic legal action in France for human rights and environmental violations in Uganda.
Paris, 23 October 2019 Today Friends of the Earth France, Survie, AFIEGO, CRED, NAPE/Friends of the Earth Uganda and ...
23 October, 2019Robust week of UN negotiations ends with threats to civil society’s participation
18 October 2019, Geneva UN negotiations drew to a close for another year after a week of discussions on the text detail...
18 October, 2019System change, resistance, mobilization and an end to corporate impunity.
We are all experiencing deep interconnected systemic crises that threaten life on earth. These climate and biodiversity ...
16 October, 2019Death by impunity: Berta Cáceres and Agua Zarca
“I cannot freely walk on my territory or swim in the sacred river and I am separated from my children because of the...
08 October, 2019Amazon wildfires are a wake-up call for the world
The wildfires raging in the Amazon rainforest - predominantly in Brazil, but also in Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru - are no...
04 September, 2019Revised binding treaty draft shamefully disappointing
Friends of the Earth International presents this initial analysis of the recently released Revised Draft of the UN Bindi...
25 July, 2019Corporations ‘hijack justice’ through RCEP trade deal
Countries from across Asia convened in Melbourne this week to negotiate the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partners...
04 July, 2019A journey through the oil spills of Ogoniland
Over two decades after Shell was first called out for it’s destruction of the Niger Delta, oil still contaminates the ...
17 May, 2019Plastic waste trade in crisis
In 2018 China shook the global plastic recycling system by banning imports of plastic waste. Since then our plastic prod...
29 April, 2019Friends of the Earth Netherlands submits legal summons in historic climate case against Shell
The Hague, April 5, 2019 - Today Friends of the Earth Netherlands will deliver a court summons to Shell to legally compe...
05 April, 2019First negotiations since release of zero draft of instrument on transnational corporations and human rights sees record attendance
20 October 2018, Geneva: Talks concluded yesterday evening following the discussion of substantive proposals. States ack...
20 October, 2018People before profit: Time to progress Zero Draft of a UN Binding Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights
Friends of the Earth International, as a member of a Global Campaign and within an international Alliance, is fighting f...
11 October, 2018The magnitude of the planetary crisis requires action of a similar size; the solution is system change
We are facing deep-rooted climate, social and environmental crises. The current dominant economic system cannot provide...
14 August, 2018Secret RCEP trade deal fails international standards of transparency, experts warn
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is being negotiated in Bangkok, Thailand this week. The mega regi...
19 July, 2018Why does the European Union fear a binding human rights treaty on transnational corporations?
Civil society support for a legally binding treaty to regulate transnational corporations is growing, particularly in th...
11 July, 2018Defending democracy in Brazil means demanding Lula da Silva’s freedom
The unlawful imprisonment of Brazil’s ex-President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva and the speed with which his false...
31 May, 2018Public services alternative
Since 2014, the Our Water Our Rights Campaign has mobilized communities and people’s groups to resist water privatizat...
17 April, 2018Shell faces historic legal action in the Netherlands for its failure to act on climate change
Amsterdam, 4 April 2018: Friends of the Earth Netherlands announces that it will take Shell to court if it does not act ...
04 April, 2018The People vs. Shell
We took Shell, one of the biggest climate polluters in the world to court for causing climate change and we WON! This is...
04 April, 2018The 2017 Continental Day for Democracy and against Neoliberalism
From 16 to 18 November 2017, thousands of people from across the American continent came together in Montevideo, Uruguay...
03 April, 2018Positive move towards historic treaty on transnational corporations and human rights at UN Human Rights Council
Geneva, 9 March 2018 This week the Human Rights Council was debating the binding treaty on transnational corporations...
09 March, 2018Five ways to transform our economies
We live in a world that’s facing many destructive and entwined crises including growing inequality, climate change, p...
12 February, 2018Davos: “Zombie” TPP trade deal threatens our fractured world
Amsterdam, 24 January 2018: Friends of the Earth International has warned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade...
25 January, 2018An Endless Crime: BHP Billiton and Vale’s Sludge Still Harming Brazil
Half past four. The kettle on the stove screams with hot water for my coffee. It´s too late: it´s now boiling; at some...
04 January, 2018Corporate Impunity: Strategies of struggle in Africa
2016 was an important year in the African continent’s struggle against corporate impunity, with the first session of t...
04 January, 2018Diamond mining in Zimbabwe: A story of the people fighting state and corporate human rights abuses and their stranglehold on natural resources
Once again the power of international solidarity has helped secure the release of activists supporting the global fight ...
18 December, 2017Murder of Indigenous peoples in Philippines as blatant human rights abuses continue
It is with great sadness and anger that we received the news of the murders of Datu Victor Danyan as well as seven membe...
14 December, 2017I was banned from the WTO for defending people’s rights
Trade deals affect people’s everyday lives from the food we eat to the energy we use, and should not be discussed in s...
13 December, 2017Anti-mining Brazilian militants arrested in Zimbabwe
Today, November 10, 2017, three comrades were arrested in Zimbabwe: Frei Rodrigo Peret, a militant of the Pastoral Land ...
10 November, 2017A binding instrument for multinationals and human rights : Why and how Africa must engage
This article was originally published in French by Mutations #4487 (Cameroon Media) on October 30 as "Un instrument con...
01 November, 2017The will of the people drives UN Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights to next level
A week of negotiations in Geneva which saw over 200 civil society organizations from 80 countries, a record presence of ...
31 October, 2017Friends of the Earth International urges states to advance talks on binding treaty to rein in corporate abuse
Amsterdam and globally, 19 October 2017: Ahead of the next round of talks on a UN treaty on transnational corporations ...
19 October, 2017Feeding our peoples and building the movement to change the world
Declarations from La Via Campesina, VII International Conference
16 October, 2017No to nuclear impunity: Remembering the Kyshtym disaster in Russia
On the 60th anniversary of the third worst nuclear disaster in history, people are still suffering and critics are being...
29 September, 2017International Day of the World’s Indigenous People
Today on International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, Friends of the Earth Asia Pacific (FoE APAC) groups from ...
09 August, 2017UN treaty is about binding rules not corporate social responsibility.
Friends of the Earth International was in Geneva again as the UN continues to work towards developing a binding treaty o...
23 June, 2017Making history: El Salvador becomes first country to ban metal mining
El Salvador made history last week by becoming the first country ever to ban metal mining. The success of this decades l...
11 April, 2017The TPP model failed, let’s not resurrect it
A high-level meeting of governments from the 12 Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiating parties together with Korea,...
16 March, 2017UN Treaty on transnational corporations and human rights progressing
Last week in Geneva at the UN Human Rights Council, a treaty for transnational corporations and human rights was once mo...
13 March, 2017Anniversary of Berta Cáceres’ murder
March is a month of struggle and resistance for Friends of the Earth International marked by the one-year anniversary of...
01 March, 2017In solidarity with the Lenca People
Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean – ATALC – wishes to express to the international community our ...
03 November, 2016People power paves the way for a truly people-centred Treaty
People power was at the forefront of talks on a treaty for transnational corporations and human rights this week in Gene...
29 October, 2016Binding Treaty to stop corporate abuse
Why do we need a legally binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights? Quite simply to stop corporate c...
26 October, 2016Statement against the murder of peasant leaders in Honduras – October 2016
Friends of the Earth Latin America and the Caribbean (ATALC) expresses its deep sorrow and condemnation of the murders o...
20 October, 2016Friends of the Earth International calls for legally binding UN treaty on Transnational corporations and human rights
From 24 to 28 October, UN negotiations that could provide a historic opportunity for justice and an end to corporate imp...
19 October, 2016Getting the Green Climate Fund we fought for
June - 2016 Karen Ornstein, deputy director of economic policy of Friends of the Earth US attended the meeting of the bo...
10 August, 2016Violations of human and environment rights continue
16 June 2016 - June 16th marks the 5th anniversary of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Yet, viola...
16 June, 2016The legacy of Berta Cáceres
How would you describe Berta Cáceres? A journalist recently asked me. Indeed, how to describe someone’s life?
03 May, 2016Forests and water – Historical links and new threats
The relationship between forests and water is of crucial importance both for our survival and for the health of the plan...
21 March, 2016A letter from Gustavo to the people of Honduras
To the Honduran people: I don't know if you'll ever receive these lines I'm writing to you.
18 March, 2016Support defenders of human rights and nature in Honduras
In the space of two weeks, four activists working with local communities opposing development projects have been shot. T...
16 March, 2016International Women’s Day 2016 Statement
On International Women’s Day, 8th March 2016, we raise our voices in indignation at the brutal murder of our sister Be...
07 March, 2016WTO rules against renewable energy and jobs in India – Friends of the Earth reaction
Geneva, Switzerland, February 24 2016 - Today the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruled against India’s National Solar ...
24 February, 2016TransCanada’s Keystone XL suit illustrates problem with TPP, trade deals
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS/ WASHINGTON, DC, January 7, 2016 -- Canadian pipeline company TransCanada gave notice Wednesday t...
07 January, 2016Outcome appeal against Shell: victory for the environment and the Nigerian people – Friends of the Earth Netherlands
Amsterdam, December 18, 2015 - Four Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth Netherlands/ Milieudefensie welcome today..
18 December, 2015People power gathers momentum even as politicians fail in Paris
Actions and mass protests gathered pace around the world in the last two weeks, stealing the spotlight from the Paris cl...
12 December, 2015Human Rights for Peoples, Binding Rules for Corporations: the lessons for the UN one month after the Vale and BHP environmental crime on Rio Doce watershed
Mining corporation SAMARCO has received awards for its Corporate Social Responsibility, including a national environment...
10 December, 2015âStop the hazeâ : Friends of the Earth Indonesia protest at Paris climate talks
Activists from Friends of the Earth Indonesia/WALHI held an action at the international climate talks in Paris today, ab...
04 December, 2015Another dirty energy domino falls as Engie swears off new coal investments
French Minister of the Environment Ségolène Royal announced today that energy giant Engie will stop investing in coa...
14 October, 2015Friends of the Earth Europe: citizens unite against faltering trade deals
EU officials continue to ignore the unprecedented public opposition to the proposed deals, but ongoing TTIP talks are in...
14 October, 2015A UN Treaty for Transnational Corporations and Human Rights: The next battlefield
In July 2015 Friends of the Earth groups joined social movements and human rights networks from around the world for ano...
30 September, 2015Uruguay Shows the Way by Leaving Secret Trade Deal
A strong coalition of trade unions, environmentalists and farmers working together on an effective public campaign were ...
17 September, 2015EU âPost-ISDSâ proposal more of same
The European Commission has announced its plan for reform of the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism (ISDS), the...
17 September, 2015Friends of the Earth Nigeria to Nigerian Government: ‘Revoke AGIP operating licence’
This text is based on a special report by Friends of the Earth Nigeria
16 September, 2015Evictions, urban cleansing, and Climate Talks in Paris
Adèle, Clémence and Angie, three climate activists living in Paris, wrote this piece for Young Friends of the Earth Eu...
16 September, 2015The Trans Pacific Trade Deal Stumbled. Now Is the Time to Walk Away
After more than five years of negotiations, trade ministers meeting last week failed again to reach an agreement on the ...
05 August, 2015Stories from the movement for a binding treaty on business and human rights in video
In June 2014, the Human Rights Council heard the historic demand of social movements and the call of more than 600 orga...
31 July, 2015