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OECD Watch Case Alert

Disappointing final statement by UK NCP in complaint concerning settlements in Palestinian Occupied Territories

On 12 November 2021, the UK NCP's final statement in the complaint Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights vs. J.C. Bamford Excavators (JCB) fundamentally misinterpreted, in OECD Watch's view, the meaning of "business relationship" and what "directly links" a company to an impact under the OECD Guidelines and UN Guiding Principles.

The underlying complaint alleged JCB had failed to take the actions needed to identify, prevent, mitigate, and address the use of its heavy machinery products in demolitions and settlement construction in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. In its final statement, the UK NCP found JCB had failed to have a policy commitment to respect human rights and to take "any steps to conduct human rights due diligence of any kind despite being aware of alleged adverse human rights impacts and that its products are potentially contributing to those impacts.”
 

But the UK NCP determined incorrectly, in the view of OECD Watch, that JCB had not breached the Guidelines by failing to prevent or mitigate the adverse impacts. Instead, the NCP asserted that JCB's linkage to downstream impacts (i.e. via sale of its machinery) stopped after the first-tier buyer, and that JCB could not be responsible for how its machines were used after subsequent distribution. This is incorrect: linkage and responsibility go both upstream and downstream in a value chain, and as with upstream links, downstream links occur not just through direct (first tier) contracts, but also the series of buyer business relationships. By correct interpretation of the Guidelines, looking “down” the chain, JCB is directly linked to any impact that is caused using its products, even if its product is sold (or leased, or loaned) 10 times before it is connected to harm. 

To read OECD Watch's analysis in full, please see the complaint here.

Six groups accuse energy company Drax of misleading statements on its climate impacts 
On 21 October 2021, the Lifescape Project and five other complainants filed a specific instance against energy company Drax Group plc at the UK NCP. The complainants allege that statements issued by Drax regarding the climate and wider environmental impacts of the energy it produces by burning woody biomass at its UK power plant mislead consumers as to the company’s true impacts and are in breach of the Environment and Consumer Interests chapters of the Guidelines. The complainants seek mediation from the UK NCP with the aim of Drax agreeing to withdraw the statements and work with the complainants to agree to future messaging and a statement describing what the complainants believe are the real environmental impacts of Drax’s energy generation. 


Read more about this complaint in our database.
 

Consult our database for background on other complaints filed under the OECD Guidelines to National Contact Points.


Photo: Power station, Drax (1) | Stephen Richards, Creative Commons Attribution-Share  Alike 2.0 (Wikimedia)

Press information
Contact: Marian G. Ingrams (OECD Watch), m.ingrams@oecdwatch.org, tel: +31 20 639 12 91.

OECD Watch aims to ensure that business activity contributes to sustainable development and poverty eradication and that corporations are held accountable for their impacts around the globe. We are a global network with over 100 members in 55 countries. © OECD Watch 2021
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