Mapping the ‘violence footprint’ of UK-listed companies and their operations in Cambodia

SSRP-funded project investigating how UK companies’ activities relate to violence toward environmental defenders in Cambodia, and the impact on global efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The overarching question guiding this project is "what is the ‘violence footprint’ of UK-listed companies and their operations in Cambodia?". The research specifically centres around UK-listed companies based on the London Stock Exchange and Alternative Investment Market, operating in the forestry and paper, agribusiness and mining sectors. It also focusses on these UK companies’ activities and their relation to violence toward environmental defenders in Cambodia, and the impact on global efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This project directly addresses SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), with the consequences of unsustainable exploitation and violence against defenders impacting SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 15 (Life on Land).

This partnership between SSRP, Not1More and Cambodian Youth Network (CYN) also focussed on capacity building for frontline youth environmental defenders in three main areas:

• Human rights research and investigation skills (a session introducing youth activists to sources of online data, human rights responsibility of companies under their own stated policies and safeguards, social science research methods)
• GIS mapping and satellite analysis skills (upgrade training for youth using GIS and satellite imagery to document and map environmental destruction, timber industry impacts and land rights)
• Accountability workshop (a conversation inviting local NGOs, including Cambodian Center for Human Rights; Equitable Cambodia; Sahmakum Teang Tnaut; Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO); Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC) and other local human rights groups, to map accountability mechanisms)
  
  
  To date, no attempt has been made to examine the ‘violence footprint’ of specific firms or listing jurisdictions. Since 2016, the UK Government has explicitly expressed support for monitoring and redressing human rights abuses perpetrated by UK companies operating abroad. However, on both the London Stock Exchange and the Alternative Investment Market, companies that have been reported to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or associated with human rights abuses have avoided sanctions (or been allowed to re-list under different names). This project was delivered in conjunction with Cambodian environmental defenders to increase their research capacity, knowledge of accessible data sources and to jointly workshop avenues to accountability.
  
  Further information on the project is available on SSRP's website.
  
  An interactive short report on the findings from this project is available below. This is the first online database and visualization of the ‘violence footprint’ of UK-listed companies and their subsidiaries in Cambodia. Hosting this data on a publicly-accessible website allows affected communities to identify responsible UK-listed parent companies and pursue accountability through the UK legal system.