Worldwide partnership securing human rights

This week, 60 people, primarily from civil society, from all over the world met in Geneva at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights to discuss the analytical framework of the new project ‘Mind the Gap’, coordinated by SOMO.

Mind the Gap brochure

In this four-year project, civil society organisations from across the globe aim to counter the corporate strategies behind human rights abuses.

Objectives of ‘Mind the Gap’

In this project, we first want to expose corporate strategies for avoiding responsibility or being held accountable for human rights violations. An example of such a strategy is launching legal proceedings to intimidate critics and burden them with legal costs.

Secondly, we want to strengthen civil society counter-strategies for claiming and defending human rights – including direct dialogue, use of judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms, public campaigns, non-violent resistance and divestment.

We will work to meet these objectives through research and analysis, capacity building, advocacy and engagement.

Project members

The project focuses on the impact of harmful corporate strategies on communities and workers in four diverse target countries: Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia and the occupied Palestinian territories. Project members from those countries are joined by those in India, China, South Africa and Mexico. The European Coalition for Corporate Justice and SOMO will spearhead research, outreach and advocacy: the European Coalition acting at the European level and SOMO at international level.

Join us!

Are you interested in participating in ‘Mind the Gap’? Contact Virginia Sandjojo.