14 January 2020 Despite overall piracy incidents declining in 2019, there was an alarming increase in crew kidnappings across the Gulf of Guinea, according to the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) annual piracy report. In 2019, IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre received 162 incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships worldwide, in comparison to 201 reported incidents in 2018. The incidents included four hijacked vessels, 11 vessels fired upon, 17 attempted attacks, and 130 vessels boarded, according to the latest IMB figures.

9 January 2020 Commencing 2020 on a dispute resolution high note, the International Court of Arbitration (ICC Court) of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) has registered its 25,000th case and announced record arbitration figures for 2019. Case 25,000 involves parties from the Middle East and India and will be administered through the Secretariat’s office in Singapore. The trailblazing ICC Court – named by the latest Queen Mary University Survey as the world’s most preferred arbitral institution – registered a total of 869 new cases

20 December 2019 In the midst of the eighth session of the Conference of the State Parties (CoSP8) to the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Civil Society Team, in partnership with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), held a special event to present ideas and best practices in collective action initiatives for the implementation of UNCAC in Southeast Europe (SEE). The event, held on 18 December in Abu Dhabi, also reiterated a strong

17 December 2019 A comprehensive set of principles on how business can facilitate the economic integration of refugees into the global economy was presented by ICC Secretary General John WH Denton AO during the Global Refugee Forum, taking place this week in Geneva from 16-18 December. The Charter seeks to contribute to the shift from ad hoc humanitarianism to long-term development and employment opportunities that benefit refugees and their host communities alike. The Charter of Good Practice on the Role of The Private Sector in Economic Integration

15 December 2019 Climate negotiations concluded today in Madrid, leaving global business deeply disappointed that a deal could not be reached on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The negotiations – COP25 – marked the longest in history. Yet despite progress on many agenda items – including gender; oceans; land; loss and damages; adaptation; and response measures – governments failed to match the ambitions of business and other stakeholders regarding the operationalisation of  “Article 6” of the Paris Agreement, a crucial missing element of the so-called

10 December 2019 ICC has welcomed the decision taken today by members of the World Trade Organization to renew the longstanding global prohibition on applying customs duties to cross-border data flows. Known as the “WTO e-commerce moratorium”, the agreement – first established in 1998 – has played an important role in the development of the Internet by keeping tariffs off digitally delivered products, services and content. In recent months ICC has warned that a failure to renew this deal would not only add to a damaging pattern