A shift in favour of human rights protection is
motivating policy and legal changes around the world, seen in
Australia's Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). In Europe,
we are seeing an increase in human rights-based litigation as
mandatory due diligence in the supply chain is expanding beyond
modern slavery laws, and Australia may not be far
behind.
European civil society organisations are increasingly pursuing
parent companies in their home jurisdictions for the alleged
adverse human rights impacts of their subsidiaries abroad. A
significant case relates to charges of terrorism financing and
crimes against humanity against Lafarge and its directors, which
came to a head in November 2019. The case had been before the
courts since 2016 when former employees, with the European Centre
for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and
its French sister organisation Sherpa, filed a complaint for
alleged abuses committed in Syria by Lafarge's subsidiary
Lafarge Cement Syria (LCS
