Business and Human Rights (LAWS70382)

The private sector represents one of the most important and daunting challenges facing the human rights community. As the reach and influence of companies have grown—sometimes dwarfing the states in which they operate—their impact on human rights has become impossible to ignore. Human rights have become the currency of major brands, helping determine Citibank financing, Exxon-Mobil relations with communities and working conditions along Wal-Mart’s enormous supply chain. Shareholder activists, NGOs, social movements, the media and governments are demanding greater transparency and reporting on human rights. The United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the multilateral banks have adopted human rights standards for companies, and a growing body of soft and hard law (domestic and international) is beginning to define the precise scope of corporate human rights obligations. This subject will explore the fast-growing field of business and human rights, highlighting the most critical legal and practical issues surrounding efforts to advance corporate responsibility and accountability.

The lecturer has been working in the field of human rights for 25 years, 10 of those years in the field of business and human rights, as a researcher, advocate and teacher. She co-leads the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, based at Columbia University, involving over 240 faculty at more than 140 institutions in 32 countries worldwide.

Principal topics include:

• The history of the business and human rights movement
• The political and ideological challenge to applying human rights to business
• The legal framework and institutions for corporate human rights accountability
• The UN “Protect, Respect, Remedy” Framework and UN Guiding Principles
• Multi-stakeholder initiatives and soft law human rights standards
• Key legal challenges: 'Non-state actors', 'sphere of influence' and 'complicity'
• Litigating corporate human rights
• Non-judicial advocacy strategies
• Business and human rights case studies
• The business management perspective on human rights and implementation challenges.