Wake-up call for investors in human rights laggards like Heinz and Starbucks

Jon Hay

November 14, 2018 05:15 PM

Brick worker Bangladesh modern slavery human rights from PA 230x150 — Worker is working in Brickfiled...The world is going through a speedy urbanization and Bangladesh is not an exception from this. Such rapid urbanization generates a massive demand for bricks as it is one of the key ingredients to build concrete structure. To meet this growing need, numbers of brick making field have been increasing at an alarming rate in Bangladesh. Most of them took place in farming lands which causes reduction of agricultural production. .We know that burning coal causes tremendous emission of Carbon-Di-Oxide (CO2) gas which is primarily responsible for climate change. Brick making fields use coal as fuel to burn raw bricks. Burning coal is also foremost cause of acid rain, and toxic air pollution..Workers work here from dawn to dusk still their wage is not up to the minimum standard. Beside this the working condition is so dusty that one cannot breathe properly without mask. Sometimes even musk is not enough to protect your lungs. Hence, many workers might end up having respiratory diseases after some years. .Child labor is also a regular scenario in brick making fields. These children work here for as little as USD 1.5$ per day or even without any payment. They are growing up here without any education facilities too. .It seems brick making fields are a symbol of modern slavery and destruction of nature. To protect nature from destruction, we need to move towards eco-friendly brick making factory without any delay; because at the end we all need to keep in our mind that Ã¢â‚¬Å“We need nature to live, but nature does not need us. | Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Zuma Press/PA Images

Investors need to use their voices, especially by voting at AGMs, to improve the poor performance of many companies on protecting human rights, according to supporters gathered in London on Monday for the launch of the second annual results of the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark.

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Jon Hay