Why Justice Matters ‘Before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you have depended on half the world.’ Martin Luther King ‘Learn to do right: seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.’ Isaiah 1:17 Trade and business links us all with the rest of the world. Nearly a third of FTSE 100 companies do business in developing countries. UK foreign investment provides around £14 billion to developing countries each year – far more than we send in aid.

Why Justice Matters But a few irresponsible British companies are abusing or exploiting people abroad – and getting away with it. People who work for or even just live near the operations of British companies abroad are suffering. We wouldn’t find this acceptable – why should they?

Magige Ghati Kesabo from Tanzania lost his eldest son Emmanuel, who was shot and killed at a gold mine owned by a UK-based company. ‘My family depended on him so much’, he said, ‘He was going to look after me when I got old and now he is gone.’ CASE STUDY Stories

Felix and his daughter Bertha live close to a copper smelting plant in Zambia. Seven-year-old Bertha is badly affected by acid fumes emitted from the plant. Felix explains: ‘She says: “I feel my chest – I can’t breathe, Dad”… It’s getting worse. When she starts coughing, she doesn’t stop. She doesn’t even play with her friends.’ CASE STUDY TWO Traidcraft/gcphotosite.com

Nipu worked at a garment factory in the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, making clothes for the British high street. In April 2013 the building collapsed killing well over a thousand people. Nipu was one of the survivors – despite being seven months pregnant at the time. ‘All I could think about was my son.’ CASE STUDY THREE Rainbow Collective/Openvizor

The Justice Matters petition We the undersigned call on the government to update the law so that large UK companies can be prosecuted for the most serious cases of causing harm abroad. Sign online at or on paper. Every name adds to the pressure on the government to act.