Dear Sir,
We write as a group of civil society organisations from the African region, involved in supporting community claims for redress for business-related human rights harms connected to the operations of multinational corporations within our communities. We are concerned that the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill, tabled by Prime Minister David Cameron on June 21, 2011 to reform the rules and principles governing the costs of civil litigation in England and Wales, could make human rights litigation against multinationals unviable and could limit access to justice for victims of business-related human rights harms, particularly in the developing world.
We are aware that these cases are extremely risky and expensive to run, often involving teams of lawyers working over several years and that there are few firms willing to take on the risks and costs involved in this kind of litigation. The proposed changes to the civil costs regime proposed under the new bill now threaten to make them impossible. In particular, the abolition of 'success fees' payable by defendants, would mean that law firms that assist communities affected by business-related human rights harms would not in future be able to run the risk of taking on these type of cases. The payment of success fees out of compensation awarded by the court if a claim is successful, could mean that claimants could potentially walk out of court no better off than at the start of litigation and would thus be left without the substance of an effective remedy.
We agree with Professor John Ruggie, United Nations Special Representative for Business and Human rights, that aspects of the proposed reforms could constitute a significant barrier to legitimate business-related human rights claims being brought before UK courts where alternative sources of remedy are unavailable because they would introduce "real disincentives to what is a very small pool of lawyers willing to take on complex human rights-related cases against multinational enterprises" with their associated high costs in a climate in which there are already many existing financial, political and social disincentives to lawyers to represent claimants in such cases. This would have severely detrimental consequences for legitimate claimants and would be "a sad day indeed for corporate accountability in this country."(Martyn Day)
We are humbly requesting that the proposed policy be withdrawn and revised to avoid reducing possibilities for holding multinational enterprises accountable for their violation of human rights.
Elisabeth Strohscheidt
Human Rights Desk
Misereor
Mozartstr. 9
52064 Aachen
Germany
e-mail:
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signed in the name of the above named organisers of the Doula workshop and the following
participants and organisations:
- Abass Kamasa, Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SilNoRF), Sierra Leone
- Brice Mackosso, Commission Diocésain Justice et Paix (CDJP), Republic of Congo
- Claudia Müller-Hoff and Miriam Saage-Maaß, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Germany
- Daniel Owusu-Korateng, Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM), Ghana
- Delphine Djiraibe, Public Interest Law Center (PILC), Chad
- Elisabeth Strohscheidt, Misereor, Germany
- Jean-Claude Katende, Association Africaine de Défense des Droits de l’Homme (ASADOH), Democratic Republic of Congo
- Marjorie Jobson, Khulumani Support Group, South Africa
- Martin Quack, Bread for the World (Brot für die Welt), Germany
- Ndoumbe Honoré Nkotto, FOCARFE, Cameroun
- Prof. Simeón Ombiono and Axel Müller, Conférence Episcopale Nationale du Cameroun; Service National “Justice et paix”, (CENC/SNJP) Cameroun
- Samuel Nguiffo, Centre pour L’Environnement et le Développement (CED), Cameroun
- Sandra Cossart, Sherpa, France
- Shubhha Srinivasan, Leigh Day & Co, United Kingdom
- Véronique van der Plancke, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Belgium
