It is well known that business activities can have (potentially) negative impacts on human and environmental rights along global supply chains. The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) has a comprehensive collection of cases of business-related impacts on the rights of those affected, mostly reported by journalists or civil society actors in partner countries, to which companies (can) respond.
From data systematisation to the Global Heat Map
Together with the BHRRC and a data analyst, the German Institute for Human Rights has systematised some 15,000 individual cases from the BHRRC database and developed a 'Global Heat Map of Alleged Corporate Abuses'. The heat map is intended to enable researchers and experts in the field of business and human rights to work systematically with the data provided and thus to advance knowledge about alleged negative impacts of business activities on affected people.
The heat map visualises global trends in alleged human rights and environmental abuses recorded by the BHRRC between 2017 and 2022. Users can filter by various categories, such as the type of alleged abuse, the economic sector, or the country where the alleged abuse occurred.
The heat map is particularly useful when looking at longer time periods and comparing developments between different years. For example, the heat map shows that, with the exception of 2018, the number of alleged abuses by companies worldwide has increased steadily since 2017 - with a sharp increase from 2020 to 2021.
Limitations of the heat map
The heat map has technical limitations. An entry may appear more than once due to the different dimensions of the alleged abuse: for example, an alleged abuse may relate to land rights and the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as to different actors (company 1, company 2).
The heat map allows you to filter by the country where an alleged abuse has occurred. There is also a specifically created filter (EU27) to filter for alleged abuses by companies headquartered in the 27 EU Member States.
In addition, the heat map does not include absolute figures for alleged human rights and environmental abuses, as the BHRRC collects publicly reported information. In addition, an increase in the number of alleged abuses over time does not necessarily mean that more abuses have actually occurred. The number of alleged abuses may have increased for a number of other reasons, such as rights holders becoming more aware of existing channels for making complaints and therefore reporting more abuses.
For this reason, the heat map is currently aimed at researchers and experts in the field of business and human rights who are familiar with the methodological difficulties.
Limited usability
The heat map offers promising features for systematising and visualising data in the field of business and human rights, but some technical limitations must be taken into account.
The heat map is free to use. However, users need a Google account to register for the heat map.
The heat map is currently in beta version. The functionality of the heat map is therefore still under development and will be continuously improved based on user feedback. To this end, anonymous user statistics are collected when people register for the heat map.
Another limitation is the lack of accessibility. The heat map does not meet the standards for accessible web applications. This means that users with limited mobility or a visual impairment may have difficulty using the heat map effectively.
