International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR)

Background

The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) is a project sponsored by the Tides Center, a left-of-center organization that consults for and manages grantmaking for left-of-center nonprofits, individual donors, businesses, and activists ^{2 3} As of 2025, ICAR has over 40 left-of-center member organizations which support the project, including the AFL-CIO, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Based on press history, ICAR began in 2011. ⁴

ICAR engages in targeted left-of-center advocacy and research in several areas, including global governance, labor rights, corporate influence and corruption, and international trade. ⁴

Advocacy

Labor and Human Rights

The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) has supported the implementation of stricter international labor codes in recent years, supporting the Fair Labor Association’s 2019 plan to require all affiliate companies to disclose their supplier lists. ⁵ The support comes as part of a larger ICAR initiative to promote transparency in supply chains, with ICAR launching the Transparency Pledge which requires members (who are mostly large apparel brands) to disclose supplier information. ⁶ ICAR research argues that taking the pledge improves a brand’s reputation, efficiency, and legal standing. ⁷ In November 2019, Amazon adopted the Transparency Pledge and released a list of names, addresses, and other details of over 1,000 facilities producing Amazon products. ⁸

ICAR has dedicated significant resources to combatting human trafficking through top-down intervention, arguing that international governments need to impose stricter regulations on labor and back these regulations with stronger enforcement mechanisms. ⁹ ICAR former interim executive director Meg Roggensack claimed that the 2015 Modern Slavery Act in the United Kingdom did not go far enough to address labor exploitation, arguing that the international community must impose international regulations to deal with corporate supply chains. ⁹

In March 2019, ICAR released a report arguing that supply chain transparency regulations have failed to motivate companies to meaningfully address the problem of forced labor in supply chains. ¹⁰ The report called on governments to strengthen enforcement tactics, increase the scope of regulations, and ensure that all companies are compliant with forced labor reporting statutes. ¹⁰

ICAR has also been involved in shaping U.S. legislation on human trafficking, supporting the passage of California Assembly Bill 15 in 2015 which extended the statute of limitations for filing a civil suit in cases of human trafficking to ten years. ¹¹

Opposition to Business Speech

The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable ((ICAR) also claims to fight “corporate capture,” arguing that allowing corporations to lobby and engage in litigation tactics place democratic values at risk. ¹² ICAR has accused companies of using “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs),” to intimidate journalists and public interest groups by exercising their legal right to file lawsuits. ¹³

In 2017, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline filed suit against three left-of-center organizations that protested the project. ¹⁴ In response, ICAR formed the Protect the Protest task force to try to prevent corporations from filing these lawsuits in 2018, organizing launch events in three different cities across the United States in association with other left-of-center organizations, including Greenpeace and the Center for Constitutional Rights. ¹³

The Protect the Protest Initiative works to dismiss lawsuits which it deems to be “SLAPPs” and educates individuals in smaller protest organizations about the practice. ¹⁴ The initiative is also creating legislation to end the practice altogether. ¹⁴ Today, Protect the Protest has over 20 left-of-center members, including ICAR, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Amnesty International, and Greenpeace. ¹⁴

Most of ICAR’s further anti-business-influence advocacy occurs through press releases, open letters, and recommendations to various government agencies. ICAR submitted a recommendation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights that claimed that U.S. trade policies neglect human rights to protect business interests, and a recommendation to the United States Trade Representative to remove the investor-state dispute settlement system from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  ^{15 16}

ICAR has also supported increasing regulation in the United States to fight corruption, pushing for the ILLICIT CASH Act which was introduced in November 2019 by four Democrats and four Republicans in the United States Senate. ¹⁷ The bill would require American companies to disclose the information of those who own or control them, a move which ICAR argues would increase accountability. ¹⁷

In June 2025, Nicole Vander Meulen, the legal and policy director at ICAR, published an op-ed at Just Security where she criticized the Second Trump Administration over allegations of weakened ethics standards in governance as well as alleged failure to prosecute corporate negligence. ^{18 19} Meulen further claimed “it is imperative that businesses take heed of the fact that there are widely accepted international standards that they should adhere to when it comes to their corporate political engagement.” ¹⁸

Greenpeace Protest Trial and Response

In 2019, Energy Transfer Partners sued Greenpeace for damages related to Greenpeace-backed protests targeting the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017. In 2025, a North Dakota jury found Greenpeace liable for damages caused by the protest. The jury found Greenpeace liable for trespass, defamation, conversion, and tortious interference with business. ²⁰

A post on Greenpeace’s website claimed its staffers helped “run daily non-violent direct action training,” in addition to “a handful of technical blockades trainings, offered for people who were looking to escalate their tactics in a peaceful way.”” ²⁰

ICAR was one of several organizations that signed a letter in support of Greenpeace during the legal proceedings.  ²¹

Funding

The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) is a project of the Tides Center, a left-of-center fiscal sponsorship organization that supports and directs funding for left-of-center organizations. ²²

Leadership

As of December 2025, David McKean is the executive director of the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) . He first joined ICAR in 2021 as a deputy director. Before joining ICAR, he worked for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights as the group’s Asia program counsel. Before that, he worked for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network which worked on issues related to LGBT members of the U.S. military. ²³