Business and Human Rights Network

Description

The world faces unprecedented and inter-linked environmental, economic and social challenges with profound implications for human rights. Besides climate change, catastrophic biodiversity loss and unsustainable resource consumption, these include demographic change, deepening global inequalities and trends of asset concentration, as highlighted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile financialisation and the commercialisation of the public sphere and private communications carry implications for democracy’s ability to sustain itself that are still emerging.

Corporations, their activities, influence, incentive structures and business models are deeply implicated in such problems. This raises the question, through what international standards and mechanisms should corporate human rights impacts be addressed? Recent decades have witnessed an explosion of new initiatives, from individual company codes of conduct to multi-lateral trade, investment and financial instruments, sustainability reporting rules and supply chain legislation. In the United Nations (UN) attempts to define international human rights standards addressed to business have spanned several decades. In 2011, the Human Rights Council endorsed the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), a soft-law framework.

A parallel process to develop a business and human rights treaty launched in 2014 has struggled to make progress. Yet interest from key players suggests that a framework treaty on business and human rights might offer a route to break the impasse. To explore this possibility further, this series of inter-disciplinary online seminars will convene internationally-recognised scholars and experts to address questions including:

• What should be the scope and content of a framework treaty on business and human rights, taking into account existing standards, current problems and future needs?
• What institutional design features could help to make framework treaty regime effective?
• What lessons can be learned from experience under other international framework treaties?
• How can more constructive diplomacy on a framework treaty be fostered?
• How can the contribution of a framework treaty be optimised in addressing threats to human rights from business activities, but also wider global governance challenges, now and in the future?

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

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University of Dundee
Dundee