Our economy has brought prosperity to many people, but at the same time it has exacerbated global inequality. Poverty wages, 12-hour shifts and hazardous working conditions are the bread and butter of uncountable people - and even cost human lives: hundreds of women and men died at their workplace in Pakistan and Bangladesh. They were sewing in textile factories when these collapsed or burned down due to neglect of building safety.

Dam failures in Brazilian iron ore mines killed 19 people in Mariana in 2015 and 272 people in Brumadinho in 2019. Toxic mudslides caused environmental disasters and destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of people. And currently, the construction of an oil pipeline in East Africa is threatening fragile ecosystems, the climate and the land rights of neighbouring communities. German and European companies also share responsibility in these cases.

The reason for these abuses is also a fundamental legal contradiction of globalisation: victims of human rights violations have so far had little chance of holding parent companies responsible in court at their headquarters if their subsidiaries and suppliers abroad trample on human rights. However, the same parent companies can bring charges against foreign states on the basis of trade and investment agreements if the states restrict the profit expectations of their subsidiaries through regulations. This also applies to regulations in the areas of water supply, environmental and health protection or land distribution, which serve to implement social human rights.

But progress is being made: in June 2021, under pressure from the Supply Chain Act initiative, the German Bundestag passed the German Supply Chain Act, which obliges large German companies to respect human rights and certain environmental standards. Violations could result in fines or even exclusion from public contracts. On this basis, affected people and NGOs submitted almost 300 complaints to the German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export control between 2023 and 2025. Together with partners and affected people from Peru, Misereor also submitted two complaints against the Hamburg metal company Aurubis in November 2025. For years, Peru has seen severe human rights violations and environmetal damage in the context of the extraction and transportion of copper. This copper is also exported to Germany. Together with Oxfam, Misereor has also supported complaints against two German retailers. Banana workers at Ecuadorian suppliers often do not receive living wages. They are also not suffieciently protected against toxic pesticides and their trade union rights are restricted.

On 24 May 2024, the EU has passed a EU Supply Chain Directive, which was originally supposed to be implemented in all EU member states from 2027 onwards. Affected people would then have had a real chance to claim damages before civil courts in the EU when companies violate their due diligence obligations and cause damage. Additional environmental agreements, such as those on biodiversity and marine protection, would have had to be respected. And companies would have had to develop and implement climate plans in line with the Sustainable Development Goals of the Paris Agreement.

However, at the end of 2025, the EU significantly weakened this Supply Chain Directive and postponed it by two years. Particularly serious are the removal of the EU-wide uniform civil liability rule and the climate plans, as well as the restriction of the scope of application to corporations with 5,000 or more employees and EUR 1.5 billion in revenue. This would mean that only 150 corporations headquartered in Germany would be covered, thereby exempting 95 per cent of the companies previously covered from responsibility for human rights and the environment.

Together with the Supply Chain Act Initiative, Misereor is currently advocating that the prohibition on retrogression in human rights protection under international law be observed when transposing the EU Supply Chain Directive into a future German “Law on International Corporate Responsibility.” Accordingly, the scope of application must not be restricted. Furthermore, even the watered-down Supply Chain Directive obligates Germany to make certain improvements, particularly with regard to environmental standards, an increase in fines, and redress for those affected.