Photo: Peace Brigades International accompanied the Peaceful Resistance of La Puya that established a blockade to the entrance of the Vancouver-based Radius Gold Inc. El Tambor mine in Guatemala.
On October 21, 2026, our colleagues at Peace Brigades International-United Kingdom released their report Overdue Diligence: Why human rights defenders still need a UK law on mandatory due diligence.
PBI-UK highlighted: “The Business & Human Rights Centre has documented 332 attacks on human rights defenders connected to UK companies between 2015 and 2026, including the murder of 30 activists.”
A few weeks later, Jonathan Reynolds, the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and President of the Board of Trade, stated in the House of Commons: “We will legislate to introduce a mandatory human rights due diligence regime across the UK for services, and in Great Britain for goods. …Businesses will be required to identify, assess and address risks of human rights abuses and labour exploitation within their operations and supply chains.”
The Corporate Justice Coalition, of which PBI-UK is a member, indicated that they “support this landmark step towards ending decades of corporate impunity for the exploitation of people and planet”.
However, the coalition expressed concern “about the exclusion of the environment and the public sector from the proposed framework, whether there will be true access to justice for victims, and the high thresholds which exclude many businesses”.
The Ropes & Gray international law firm has noted in their commentary: “In a November 4 Cabinet Office Written Statement, the Minister of State indicated that the aim is for the mandatory due diligence regime to take effect alongside the EU Forced Labor Regulation, which applies starting December 14, 2027.”
In Canada
The Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability (CNCA) has called for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation. The CNCA’s model law provides a blueprint for this legislation. Peace Brigades International-Canada is a member of the CNCA, along with Unifor, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network, and others.
This past summer, Global Affairs Canada held a “Public consultation on potential due diligence and civil liability measures to fight labour exploitation in supply chains”.
They noted: “The consultation focuses on potential due diligence requirements for businesses, possible civil liability measures, and ways to ensure coherence between any future due diligence framework and Canada’s forced labour import prohibition. Feedback received will help inform policy development and ensure that proposed measures effectively protect workers while remaining practical, proportionate, and responsive to the needs of Canadian businesses.”
Global Affairs Canada acknowledged: “Countries such as France, Germany, and Norway have adopted due diligence legislation, while the European Union has enacted the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). …EU member states must incorporate the directive into their national laws by July 2028, and its requirements will begin applying to companies on July 26, 2029.”
Taken as a bloc, the European Union is the UK’s largest trading partner, accounting for 41% of UK exports and 51% of UK imports.
Prime Minister Mark Carney supports Canada becoming the first associate member of the European Union. To advance this agenda, Carney stated at the recent Canada-European Union Summit in Montreal: “In March, we will convene the EU’s College of Commissioners and our federal Cabinet in Canada, to advance this work. And, in June, I have accepted President Costa’s invitation to attend the European Council meetings, where we intend to conclude these negotiations.”
The CNCA submission to this public consultation stated: “An effective labour rights due diligence law is an important first step to move Canada beyond voluntary and reporting-only approaches to corporate accountability, but it cannot be the only action the government takes. Directly-impacted communities and international human rights observers have sounded the alarm for decades at widespread human rights violations linked to the activities of Canadian companies around the world. A limited labour rights due diligence approach fails to respond to many of these needs and does not meet Canada’s international human rights obligations.”
We continue to follow these developments in Canada, the United Kingdom and elsewhere as part of the holistic protective accompaniment provided by Peace Brigades International teams around the world.
Further reading: IACHR/CIDH is told about threats and violence against environmental defenders linked to Canadian mining across Latin America (PBI-Canada, October 28, 2026).
