The Swedish engineering firm AFRY has announced its intention to withdraw from Myanmar. In a joint statement Swedwatch and four other civil society organisations welcome the move to stop doing business with the military junta but remain deeply concerned about AFRY’s delayed response and failure to realise the gravity of its dealings with the Myanmar military.
Despite promises to make financial flows consistent with a low-carbon economy, EU member states continue to provide financial support to the fossil fuel industry through export credits. It is time that the EU Commission replaces its outdated policy with new and ambitious regulation, prohibiting export support to oil and gas, says Swedwatch in a policy paper published today.
In a new policy paper, Swedwatch together with SOMO, ECCHR, OECD Watch and ECCJ call on EU lawmakers to include downstream due diligence obligations in the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), drawing on multiple case studies which highlight how companies could and should have prevented human rights impacts across their value chains.
One week before international negotiators meet at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris to discuss aligning export finance with international climate goals, Swedwatch together with more than 175 civil society organizations (CSOs) from over 45 countries have released a Joint Position calling on world leaders to end OECD export finance for oil and gas.
Strengthen the EU public procurement directive from 2014 and make it mandatory to enforce human rights requirements in public contracts - Swedwatch has identified 10 key considerations that carry opportunities to enhance public procurement as a tool to mitigate and prevent human rights and environmental impacts in public sector supply chains.
Companies that use sport sponsorships to advertise their products or services have an important role to play in preventing and mitigating human rights impacts. A new briefing by Swedwatch urges these companies to learn lessons from the World Cup in Qatar by incorporating human rights in future sponsorship agreements.
The climate crisis is among the most critical and complex issues our planet and its people face. COP27 offers a defining moment to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels. But this transition will fail if it focuses only on being fast, and not on also being just. This is also the topic for an official side event arranged by Swedwatch and Swedish Society for Nature Conservation at COP27.
Liberia and Sierra Leone have identified economic growth, sustainable management of natural resources and inclusion of women as central to peace and prosperity. Still, new research findings from Swedwatch show that business activities in land concession areas come with adverse impacts on human rights and the environment, contributing to conflict in already fragile settings.
Thousands of people whose human rights were impacted by the operations of Swedish oil company Lundin Energy could end up without remedy when the company sells its assets to Norwegian Aker BP. Today, Swedwatch and seven other NGOs file a complaint against Aker BP and its owner Aker ASA for failing to comply with the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises.
Industrial emissions from manufacturing of medicines are often associated with environmental pollution, adversely impacting ecosystems and human health. However, opaque supply chains make it impossible to hold polluters to account. In a new policy paper, Swedwatch calls on EU policymakers to strengthen their oversight on industrial emissions in the pharmaceutical sector.
Pharmaceuticals ar
Denounced by many as one of the least inclusive in the history of climate negotiations, COP26 narrowly avoided failure by adapting the Glasgow Climate Pact at the very last minute. However, due to its several compromises, the most encouraging deals were those closed in parallel initiatives.
After nearly two weeks of negotiations, global leaders at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow managed
The chairman and former CEO of Swedish oil company Lundin Energy have been indicted for their involvement in international crimes, allegedly perpetrated between 1999 and 2003 during the civil war in Sudan. Swedwatch welcomes the indictment and urges the company and its shareholders to finally compensate the victims.
Between 1997 and 2003, Lundin Energy (then Lundin Oil) prospected for oil in so
