2018 United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights

Join the members of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights in an informal conversation about their mandate to promote implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and to chair the Forum.

Working Group members will give an overview of their ongoing work and explain the background for the theme of this year's Forum. The introduction will be followed by a Q&A and an opportunity for participants to make suggestions to the Working Group.

Links to Working Group main page and thematic pages

• Working Group's main page 
• The State as an economic actor
• State national action plans (NAPs)
• Human rights defenders and civic space
• Sustainable Development Goals
• Gender lens to the UNGPs
• Corporate human rights due diligence
• International Investment Agreements (IIAs) and Human Rights

Interpretation is provided in Korean

Organized by the Working Group on business and human rights

Brief description of the session:
This session will feature a presentation by the Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, Dante Pesce. The presentation will highlight key findings and recommendations from the Working Group's report to the UN General Assembly in October 2018.
The focus of the report is the concept of corporate human rights due diligence set out in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The presentation will highlight key features of human rights due diligence and why it matters; gaps and challenges in current business and Government practice; emerging good practices; and how key stakeholders — States and the investment community, in particular — can contribute to the scaling-up of effective human rights due diligence.

Key documents

• Working Group report on human rights due diligence to the 2018 General Assembly (available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian)
• Executive summary of the Working Group report on human rights due diligence
• Companion paper I – Corporate human rights due diligence: Background note and elaborating on key aspects
• Companion paper II – Corporate human rights due diligence – Getting started, emerging practices, tools and resources
• Overview of references to human rights due diligence in existing State national action plans on business and human rights
• UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
• The Corporate Responsibility to Respect: An Interpretive Guide (Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights)

Interpretation is provided in Korean

http://webtv.un.org/search/panel-on-voices-from-the-ground-forum-on-business-and-human-rights-2018/5971600547001/?term=&lan=english&cat=Forum%20on%20Business%20and%20Human%20Rights&sort=date&page=2

Convened by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights in collaboration with: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco-growing (ECLT), The African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA), Dhaatri Resource Centre for Women and Children's Rights, Global Witness and Rafto Foundation for Human Rights

Short description of the session:
This trailblazing session will feature a panel made up of only human rights defenders and community representatives from all regions, who will speak frankly about their stories and experiences of working to improve business respect for human rights in their countries, as well as the attacks they are under because of doing so. The session will be divided into three parts: the first part with focus on ways in which they’ve successfully defended themselves and achieved their goals this year, the second part will identify the common challenges that defenders and community representatives face in their work, and the third part will outline what they want to see between now and the next forum. We will leave enough time for interaction with the audience after each segment.
This session will offer an insight into the lives and struggles of defenders and community representatives, and outline a set of their core challenges and expectations to businesses, investors and governments, thus setting the scene for the 7th Forum on Business and Human Rights.

Session objectives:
The session will provide a “reality-check” early on in the Forum, and outline a set of core challenges and expectations by defenders and community representatives to businesses and governments, thus setting the scene for the 7th Forum on Business and Human Rights. The goal of the first part will be discuss ways that they’ve successfully defended themselves and achieved their goals so far, the objective of the second part will be to identify common challenges that defenders face in their work, and the objective of the third part will be to for defenders and community representatives to voice their expectations to the forum (governments, businesses, and investors).

Key discussion questions:

• 1st part: focuses on ways in which they’ve successfully defended themselves and achieved their goals so far
  Question(s) to speakers: What was your main achievement in your work as a defender or community representatives this year? Why do you do what you do and what keeps you going?  
  Sub-questions: What were the main things that helped you and your colleagues continue defending human rights in the context of business operations in your country over the past year (coalitions, partnerships, new approaches to work, financial support, new laws, support from community/ family/ friends, religion, etc.)
• 2nd part: focuses on challenges HRDs face in their work
  Question(s) to speakers: Who prevents you from advocating for rights in your country and how? What are the main types of attack you and your colleagues have faced in defending human rights in business operations in your country this year?
• 3rd part: focuses on what they would like to ask from the forum (govts, businesses, investors) - what do they want to see between now and the next forum
  Question(s) to be asked to speakers: What are the main things that you would like to see businesses, investors and governments do in the coming year, that would  improve the safety for and prevent attacks on defenders working for human rights in business in your country, and improve business respect for human rights? 

Format of the session:
The session will open with a question or two to the audience to get them engaged early on. It will then be divided into three parts: the first part will identify ways in which they’ve successfully defended themselves and achieved their goals so far, the second will identify challenges that defenders face in their work, and the third part will outline what they would like to ask from the forum (governments, businesses, and investors) and what do they want to see between now and the next forum. We will leave enough time for interaction with the audience after each segment, so that governments, investors and businesses, can voice their proposals and feedback, and so that defenders and community representatives that won’t get a chance to speak on the panel, will have the opportunity to also share their stories (time permitting). The role of the moderator will be to engage the audience and to summarize the challenges and the demands voiced by the defenders.
In terms of identifying and voicing expectations, the speakers and the moderator will, to the extent possible, surface and built upon existing demands, such as the Action plan from the World HRDs Summit, the joint statement from 40+ civil society organizations from 2016, the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders’ reports on the topic and other relevant material.

Background to the discussion:
Business and civil society operate in and benefit from a “shared space” defined by common, fundamental elements. The rule of law and freedom of expression, association and assembly are essential to the realization of all human rights, to good governance and accountable institutions. These elements are also critical to stable, profitable and sustainable business environments in which companies thrive and economies prosper. Standards and practices have evolved over the last two decades to encourage or require companies to respect human rights. Moreover, company engagement and consultation with local communities and stakeholders is overcoming conflict and confrontation in places and ways that encourage further progress. However, this shared space is under threat, not least through a sustained and growing attack on defenders wherever businesses have failed to comply with and respect due diligence national laws, standards and national and international human rights protocols. Alarmingly, in the last decade, HRDs have increasingly come under massive attack. Since 2015, there have been over 1,300 attacks on HRDs working human rights issues related to business, including almost 400 killings. Workers were exposed to physical violence and threats in 65 countries in 2018 and trade unionists were murdered in nine countries in the first half of that year. Journalists are increasingly being imprisoned and attacked – 262 journalists were imprisoned in 2017 and 29 journalists have been killed in 2018. Civicus data indicates that only 3% of people on the planet live in countries with truly ‘open civic space’. These pressures and attacks undermine the legal and institutional frameworks upon which both business and civil society depend. For the business and human rights agenda to continue moving forward, defenders, and the civic freedoms they need to do their work, must be recognized as a vital and inescapable part of ensuring human rights respect in business operations. Defenders cannot play that role without solid guarantees of safety and security. States have primary role in ensuring corporates respect constitutional frameworks and set in place governance machinery, regulatory mechanisms, legal and policy structures and resources as well as place the upholding of human rights and well-being of all its citizens at the core of its development economy.

http://webtv.un.org/search/opening-plenary-forum-on-business-and-human-rights-2018/5971612297001/?term=&lan=english&cat=Forum%20on%20Business%20and%20Human%20Rights&page=2

Interpretation is provided in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian and Korean.
Watch the video recording in UN WebTV

Programme:
The Forum’s opening will consist of three parts:

• (11:00-11:15): Welcome by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and by the Chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights Dante Pesce.
• (11:15-12:05): Conversation with civil society leaders.
• (12:10-13:00): Conversation with business leaders.

Overall aim of opening plenary
The opening plenary of the UN Forum provides leadership and high-level perspectives on the main theme of the Forum. It features leaders from different background who can inspire others and help set the tone for constructive and solution-oriented dialogue over the three Forum days.
The backdrop to the discussions is the Forum’s mandate focused on discussing trends, challenges and emerging good practices in translating the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights for implementing the UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework into practice, and promoting multi-stakeholder dialogue and cooperation on business and human rights.

Conversation with civil society leaders 
Prominent human rights advocates from around the world will share personal and inspiring stories of their struggles to call for business respect for human rights in practice.
Speakers:

• Kailash Satyarthi, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation
• Angkhana Neelapaijit, Commissioner, National Human Rights Commission of Thailand
• Leonardo Sakamoto, Member of the Board of Trustees, UN Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, journalist, member of the Brazilian National Commission for the Eradication of Slave Labour and Chairman of Repórter Brasil.
• Phyllis Omido, founder of the Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action (Kenya)
• Moderator: Kate Gilmore, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights

Conversation with business leaders 
Senior business leaders with share their perspectives on embedding respect for human rights in company practice and the importance of human rights due diligence.
Speakers:

• Tania Cosentino, SDG Pioneer; Senior Vice President, Schneider Electric
• Gary Goldberg, Chief Executive Officer, Newmont Mining Corporation
• Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer, TOTAL S.A.
• Jeannette Von Wolfersdorff, Member of the Board of the Santiago Exchange
• Moderator: Dante Pesce, Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

 
Brief description of the presentation:
The French duty of vigilance law requires parent companies to identify and manage human-rights risks. How to take into account the highly operational nature of human rights issues and provide appropriate responses on the ground? This session is a case study as to how companies and international trade unions can work together collaboratively to address human rights risks at the country level in Qatar and find solutions in cases where human risks have risen.

Presentation objectives:
This presentation aims to provide a practical example of human rights risks management at a country level: Vinci’s risk management of living and working conditions in Qatar.

Brief description of the presentation:
The French law applies to large companies with international activities. It requires the implementation of a global risk prevention process (identification, evaluation, management and monitoring) covering different thematic areas within the company. How can we lead the process, promote cross-functionality and involve all stakeholders?

Presentation objectives:
This presentation aims to give two examples of companies for the deployment of an effective approach within large groups of companies: the example of Orange on how to work together and to build a shared vision; and the example of BNP Paribas on how to support the process through appropriate training actions.

Brief description of the presentation:
 This presentation will rely on the reference guidance on the duty of vigilance developed by Sherpa (the "VPRG"). It will give an overview of the aspects of published Vigilance Plans that most need improvement for the second round of implementation of the law in 2019. In particular, issues of disclosure and follow-up on implementation of vigilance measures will be addressed.

Presentation objectives: 
This presentation should inform civil society’s advocacy strategies around the Vigilance Law. The elements presented could also be of utmost importance for companies wanting to comply thoroughly with the law to circumvent the risk of litigation. Indeed, it should be recalled that the Law’s judicial enforcement mechanisms will be applicable from the spring 2019.

Brief description of the presentation:
In this session, Sticks’n’Sushi, part of the REGA initiative, shares experiences conducting its first operational impact assessment as part of documenting HuRi through collaboration with other restaurants; and the potential for addressing systemic challenges for the industry in collaboration with peers.

Presentation objectives:
CEO Kim Rahbek presents on the influence the initiative has and the benefits it brings Sticks’n’Sushi.

Brief description of the presentation:
This session both introduces the screening tool Polaris uses when assessing the degree of alignment with the UNGPs of potential investments and the process from engaging in partnership with the portfolio company to aligning with the UNGPs.
 
Presentation objectives:
In this snapshot session, Polaris presents the UNGPs application in investment.

Brief description of the presentation:
This snapshot session presents experiences with starting operational-level impact assessments at the headquarters of an ICT company.

Presentation objectives:
Configit shares examples of good practice documentation and the process of implementation of the UNGPs after entering into a partnership with Polaris.

Brief description of the presentation:
In this session Schur International by referencing its work with the subsidiary Schur Packaging Denmark discusses how documented operational-level impact assessments are used when engaging with key suppliers, Stora Enso, but also downstream partners.

Presentation objectives:
The session also focuses on sharing experiences from creating a corporate culture around the commitment and engaging subsidiaries.

Brief description of the presentation:
In this snapshot session Stora Enso, an important supplier to Schur Packaging Denmark, presents on their work with HRDD and the need to be able to rely on business partners to respect human rights; and the reactions to the approach from Schur Packaging Denmark.

Presentation objectives:
This session focuses on what is sufficient in order to meet supplier and customer demands, and the potential of documented operational-level impact assessments to become standard to answer B2B expectations.

Organized by Global Compact Local Network (Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom) and United Nations Global Compact

The Local Networks engaged in the coordination of this session have developed the following informal pre-read for this session, providing a snapshot of BHR initiatives of Local Networks of the UN Global Compact around the world. You can access the document here


Brief description of the session:
The UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, with over 9500 business participants from across all regions of the world. Crucially, Global Compact Local Networks operate in 71 countries to support businesses on their sustainability journey in their own regions. This session will present practical perspectives from across the world on the theme of:
Better connecting responsible businesses across global supply chains
Global Compact Local Networks operate across all regions of the world, and include companies from the bottom to the top of global supply chains. This segment brings together businesses at both ends of the supply chain, to address how responsible businesses on both sides can better connect to promote respect and support for human rights.
The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights clarify that enterprises have an independent responsibility to respect human rights and that in order to do so they are required to exercise human rights due diligence. In a recent report on the state of play of corporate human rights due diligence in practice, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights found that "Translating corporate policies into local contexts, for example in subsidiaries, is a challenge across sectors. There is typically a disconnect between the corporate level and implementation on the ground as well as gaps in internal alignment between functions and incentive structures. ...An apparent gap in current supply chain management is that human rights due diligence tends to be limited to tier-one companies."
The panellists will share their experience in implementing effective human rights due diligence across supply chains, and discuss some of the ways they and their partners are looking to improve supply chain management in the future. From the perspective of headquarters, a local subsidiary, and a local supplier, the panellists will examine how disconnects can arise between these actors - and identify some of the best ways to overcome them.

Session objectives:

• Illustrate how the UNGPs are implemented in practice, , including some of the main challenges, existing good practice and potential areas for improvement

• Identify the main “disconnects” in respecting human rights along supply chains between headquarters, subsidiaries and local suppliers
• Build understanding on the role of human rights in procurement decisions
• Portray good practices of companies from different regions

Format of the session:
Tentative Agenda:

• Welcome (2 minutes)
• Better connecting responsible businesses across global supply chains
  • Introductory Remarks by Sustainable Procurement & Human Rights Expert (10 minutes)
  • Moderated interactive discussion between business panellists (40 minutes)
  • Interventions from the floor from other LNs speakers (5 minutes)
  • Q&A and Discussion with the Audience (20 minutes)
• Closing & Call to Action (3 minutes)

Audience Engagement 
 This session will engage the audience by using the Q&A and polling application slido,

Brief description of the session:
Human rights due diligence is an ongoing process that requires companies to maintain a “true picture” of its human rights risks over time. In particular, commentary to UN GP 18 notes that human rights impact assessments should be undertaken at regular intervals and specifically prior to “major decisions or changes in the operation”. While not explicitly mentioned in the commentary, one of the major decision a business can take is that of leaving a market and reducing or winding up operations. While this decision can be taken for purely commercial reasons, it can also be conditioned by changing political, economic or physical circumstances such as the eruption or intensification of war, the occurrence of natural disasters, the instatement of economic sanctions or even health crises. These events might impact the capacity of the company to identify, avoid and manage human rights risks and present renewed challenges for the company to fulfil its responsibility to respect human rights. How can companies wind down or exit operations responsibly under such circumstances?

Session objectives:
While the business and human rights debate has been focused on key corporate decisions such as market entry, new investments or the launching of new products or services, less attention has been given to questions of sales and market exit – especially in circumstances of urgent exit. The purpose of the snapshot session will be to raise awareness of this issue and spur interest in exploring the implications of the UNGPs.

Brief description of the presentation: 
This snapshot sessions will be based on a forthcoming report compiled by four participants of our 2018 BHR Young Researchers Summit, titled Good Business: The Economic Case for Promoting Human Rights. The objective of this report is to offer a more nuanced, evidence-based assessment of the ‘business case’ for human rights. More specifically, the session engages with two clusters of arguments: The first cluster looks at the costs and benefits associated with embracing or ignoring human rights in the workplace and in community relations. It provides insight, for example, in the relation between employee loyalty and human rights respect, or the cost of conflict resolution measures in case of worsening community relations. The second cluster demonstrates how governments are increasingly using economic leverage as a tool to promote corporate respect for human rights. The utilization of human rights standards in public procurement contracts or in the provision of export credits will be among the examples of how countries implementing the UNGPs have started to create economic incentives for businesses to respect human rights.

Presentation objectives:
The session will present the arguments underscoring the growing evidence that respecting human rights is not only a moral imperative for business, but is increasingly turning into an economic necessity.

Brief description of the presentation:
This snapshot sessions will be based on a forthcoming report compiled by four participants of our 2018 BHR Young Researchers Summit, titled Good Business: The Economic Case for Promoting Human Rights. The objective of this report is to offer a more nuanced, evidence-based assessment of the ‘business case’ for human rights. More specifically, the session engages with two clusters of arguments: The first cluster analyzes the costs and benefits associated with corporate abuse-related lawsuits, such as information-disclosure cost or reputational damage and it shows the effects of lawsuits on the share price of companies. The second cluster assesses the complex role of consumers and investors in driving responsible business behaviour as well as of new legislation that increases not least the demands of businesses towards each other.

Presentation objectives:
The session will discuss the arguments underscoring the growing evidence that respecting human rights is not only a moral imperative for business, but is increasingly turning into an economic necessity.

Brief description of the presentation:
The right to health, and the underlying access to medicine, is one of the obvious salient human rights in the pharmaceutical sector. However, pharmaceutical companies recognize that there are other salient human rights issues that need to be addressed when considering right-holders across the entire value chain, in their own operations and throughout their supply chains.

Presentation objectives:
This session will provide some insights into the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) and how the member companies are collaborating to define, implement and champion responsible supply chain practices, including the respect for human rights.

Brief description of the presentation:
This snapshot presentation will discuss key elements of Samsung Electronics’ continuous journey on human rights due diligence, including practical experiences in aligning its business activities with the UN Guiding Principles.

Presentation objectives:
Samsung Electronics will share selected cases of the implementation of its commitment with regards to human rights due diligence, with examples from our global operations.

Description of the presentation:
The second pillar of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights requires businesses to conduct human rights due diligence not only within its business activity but also for those with whom the business may be directly linked. To name a few, these are the contractors, transporters, and those within the supply chain and value chain.

Presentation objectives:
The presentation will cover the challenges faced in conducting human rights due diligence in the supply chain. Aditya Birla has initiated work towards human rights due diligence in the supply chain. Some practices followed to overcome the challenges will be presented.

Brief description of the presentation :
The presentation will introduce how Keidanren, one of the main business organizations in Japan, plays an active role in leading Japanese corporations to respect human rights as well as to promote human rights due diligence (HRDD) in accordance with the UN Guiding Principle on Business and Human Rights.

Presentation objectives:
To explain Keidanren's Charter of Corporate Behavior and the concept of "Society 5.0 for SDGs".
The presentation will also share some data on how Japanese companies respect human rights and promote HRDD in their business.

Brief presentation of the presentation:
Sakhalin Energy will present the main challenges that a large project operator encounters when introducing and implementing human rights standards across supply chain partners, as well as the practical tools from the company’s experience allowing to address these challenges.

Presentation objectives:
The session will focus on thorough bidding process, human rights inclusive contract management, trainings/awareness raising for internal/external stakeholders, tools of contractors’ monitoring and audits.

Brief description of the presentation:
S Group is a Finnish consumer owned cooperative group operating in the supermarket, department store and hardware trade, service station store and fuel sales and the travel industry and hospitality business. Expectations on human rights due diligence of businesses are growing, while implementing supply chain due diligence practices can be very challenging in practice. S Group has explored existing practices and identified innovative tools and methods for practical implementation of human rights due diligence.

Presentation objectives: 
In this snapshot presentation, S Group will share its experience and showcase concept for in-depth human rights impact assessment. The human rights impact assessment concept was developed to strengthen supply chain due diligence and to gain information of the root causes of the human rights issues.

Brief description of the presentation:
UPM is committed to sustainable forest management and monitors the origin of wood to ensure it is sustainably and legally sourced. The presentation will describe human rights due diligence process in large supply base covering several sourcing categories, involving more than 25000 suppliers. It will also bring practical examples of risk assessment within chemicals sourcing.

Presentation objectives: 
The presentation will describe UPM's approach in managing human rights risk in supply chain. It will introduce a practical case on chemicals sourcing and elaborate on opportunities for further development.

Brief description of the presentation:
Outotec develops leading technologies and services for the sustainable use of Earth’s natural resources in the mining, metal, energy, and chemical industries. The presentation will provide an overview of how to manage the human rights risks in a global supply chain, focusing on the practices and challenges of a globally operating technology company.

Presentation objectives: 
The objective of the presentation is to describe the current practical ways of assessing supply chain risks and related approach adopted at Outotec. This includes finding the key assessment areas and managing the classification, assessment and audit process, and the related challenges.

Brief description of the presentation:
Neste is an important producer of renewable diesel and a refiner of high-quality oil products that enable customers to reduce their climate emissions. Neste’s approach on human rights due diligence is centered on activities to assess and identify the potential impacts on human rights of our various internal functions and business areas, including those that concerns sourcing. This is followed by actions to increase the preparedness of internal management systems to mitigate human rights risks.

Presentation objectives:
The presentation will shade light on the current activities aimed at, amongst others, improving Neste’s sourcing practices on due diligence that is strengthened with human rights criteria, coupled with capacity building and supplier engagements.

Interpretation is provided into Spanish and Korean.

Organized by the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights in collaboration with the Responsible Business Alliance

Brief description of the session:
This session will focus on how and why companies approach implementing human rights due diligence across their value chains to identify and address (in coordination and collaboration with others) systemic human rights impacts.
Participants will gain an opportunity to explore the complexity of value chains in today’s globalised economy, and how business practitioners map and seek to understand their company’s value chain. We will also examine how practitioners conduct human rights due diligence across vast and complex value chains – with an emphasis on opportunities to promote collaboration and communication across entities in the value chain to more efficiently identify and address adverse impacts. The session will incorporate emerging practice and perspectives from panellists and members of the ‘audience’. The session will conclude with observations as to what is needed to enhance and scale value chain due diligence.

Session objectives:
Through this session, we will seek to:

• Strengthen understanding of the complexity of today’s value chains and business relationships – and how this complexity impacts efforts to implement human rights due diligence.
• Explore how business practitioners are mapping and visualising their value chains, including key challenges and innovations.
• Share how companies across industries are working to enhance their due diligence in key parts of the value chain, including by strengthening communication and coordination.
• Identify practical opportunities to enhance and scale value chain due diligence going forwards.

Key discussion questions:

• How can business practitioners strengthen their (and stakeholders’) visibility of complex value chains?
• How are business practitioners (individually and collectively) working to identify and respond to human rights impacts across their companies’ value chains?

Session format:
This session will commence with a discussion amongst the speakers and the audience about the complexity of modern value chains. We will invite 2-3 companies from different industries to share, briefly, an overview of their companies’ value chains and discuss how this changes over time.
We will then explore the challenges companies confront when undertaking value chain due diligence (including that of prioritisation) through a series of mini-case studies. These case studies will offer participants insight into how companies in different industries are implementing human rights due diligence in various parts of their value chains – for example, to assess risks in specific business relationships (i.e. customers, JV partners, suppliers), sourcing decisions (i.e. particular components or raw materials) and production phases (i.e. manufacturing, processing, recycling). The session will not aim to be comprehensive, but rather to give participants a sense of innovative and less-visible aspects of companies’ efforts to identify and manage issues across their value chains. We will also discuss key tools available to companies to support these efforts.
Throughout the session, we will encourage active participation from the audience, and will ask business participants to come prepared to share their own insights and experiences.

Background to the discussion:
In today’s globalised economy, companies are under increasing pressure to identify and respond to adverse human rights impacts in their value chains. Value chains are extremely complex. Most companies have hundreds of customers, suppliers and other business partners – and these typically provide services to more than one industry sector. Major brands have been under particular pressure to ‘cascade’ expectations and standards ‘down’ their supply chains. Suppliers and other business-to-business companies are also increasingly expected to meet their customers’ standards, to be alert to human rights risks downstream – that is, impacts they may be involved in through their customers and clients. For most companies, undertaking human rights due diligence across the value chain will indeed require assessing a multitude of different types of business relationships, products and operations.
Companies working to respond to these pressures face additional challenges presented by the extensive nature of major global value chains, and the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the many business relationships within it. Knowing what the value chain ‘looks like’ is key to enabling robust approaches to identify and respond to adverse human rights impacts. But knowing is also only the start. Even with good visibility of entities within a company’s value chain, implementing effective human rights due diligence processes to identify and understand risks in the value chain requires companies to work together. It also requires the development of creative and smart strategies to navigate issues of scale and find efficiencies, the use of leverage as appropriate and the identification of appropriate ways to prioritise (where necessary).

Interpretation is provided in English and French.


Organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Brief description of the session: 

This Forum session is part of the Forum track on trends and challenges in promoting business respect for human rights in the context of each region of the world. Building on the sessions on government action on the Forum’s first day, the region focused discussions aim to take a closer look at how to overcome key business-related human rights challenges faced in African countries and lessons learned from emerging government, business and civil society action.

Objective of the session: 

Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue around lessons learned and the way forward, including on how to scale up emerging good practice and strengthen a race to the top among governments and business in the region.

Format of the session:

The proposed session will be done in a talk show format with the participants having the opportunity to raise questions amongst each other as in a public dialogue. The session is chaired by the Member of the UN Working Group, Githu Muigai

Preliminary agenda: 

• Introduction by The UN Working Group member, Githu Muigai
• Kickoff remarks:
  • Civil society coalition reflections on how to overcome key business-related human rights challenges in the region and what emerging practices to build on
  • Business perspectives on how to drive a race to the top in the region
  • Government statements on lessons learned and commitments for going forward
• Roundtable discussion

Brief description of the presentation:
Konica Minolta Australia will present its experiences in implementing an extensive range of community engagement programs and championing a broad range of social justice issues, including advocating for an Australian Modern Slavery Act which would compel Australian companies above a specified revenue threshold to report annually to government on their initiatives to ensure their supply chains are free from modern slavery and other forms of human rights abuse. Among aspects covered, the presentation will share insights from building capability to manage human rights risks in the supply chain ahead of being compelled to by legislation. The presentation will feature experiences and the unintended positive outcomes around growth in staff engagement and enhanced commercial outcomes.

Presentation objectives:
Sharing experiences and the unintended positive outcomes around growth in staff engagement and enhanced commercial outcomes.

Organized by Shift, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), Oxfam

Brief description of the session and objectives:
The overall purpose of this event is to deepen our understanding of the relationship between the SDGs and the business and human rights agenda from the viewpoint of various stakeholders. More specifically, our objectives are:

• To discuss the evolving relationship between the SDGs and business and human rights from the perspective of business, civil society, government, and other stakeholders.
• To identify key barriers (cultural, institutional, etc.) that prevent greater integration of human rights considerations and approaches into companies’ engagement on the SDGs.
• To develop strategies for how to better ensure that respect for human rights is at the center of every company’s efforts toward contributing to the Global Goals.

Key discussion questions:

1. What are the major trends, areas of progress, and gaps in corporate strategies and actions on the SDGs?
2. What are the main barriers that are holding back deeper synergy between the SDGs and the business and human rights agenda?
3. What can business, civil society, governments, investors, and other actors do to help make elements of the business and human rights agenda (e.g. ‘Respect, Protect, Access to Remedy,’ human rights due diligence) a cornerstone of companies’ SDG engagement?

Format of the session:
To encourage multi-stakeholder dialogue, we propose a workshop-style session to crowdsource input into the discussion questions outlined above. Following a set of scene-setting presentations, small group discussions will offer an opportunity for participants to add to the conversation, and the plenary discussion at the end will capture key takeaways and opportunities for further collaboration.


Setting the scene: The state of play on business, the SDGs, and human rights (35 min) 

Small group discussions (20 min)
In groups up to 20 people, the following questions will be discussed:

• What examples of good practice are we seeing in positioning human rights at the heart of SDG engagement?
• What are the barriers in ensuring an integrated approach to business respect for human rights and contributions to the SDGs?
• What can we do, individually and collectively, to tackle these barriers?

Plenary discussion and wrap-up (20 min) 

• Report back from small group discussions by table leads
• Collating feedback and facilitated discussion of emergent themes and findings
• Group Discussion and plenary moderated by Phil Bloomer, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre 

Background to the discussion:
Three years since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) continue to gain momentum within the business community. More than 90% of the SDG targets are linked to international human rights and labor standards. Ensuring respect for human rights – an inherently creative and innovative process – is thus one of the most important contributions to the SDGs that businesses can make. In addressing negative human rights impacts connected to business activity, companies that take this approach will be delivering hugely positive outcomes for people.
Yet, few companies are linking their SDG engagement with their commitment to human rights. While the number of companies embracing the SDGs and making commitments to respecting human rights continues to grow, many of them are treating the SDGs and human rights as separate areas of engagement. As a result, there is a risk that company strategies and actions on the SDGs do not meaningfully address human rights impacts associated with corporate operations and supply chains.
The lack of knowledge regarding business’ SDG contributions and the relationship between the SDGs and the business and human rights agenda represents a problem for all stakeholder groups. A new debate is urgently needed if we want to ensure that human rights form the cornerstone of any business strategy or action aimed at contributing to the Global Goals.
 
 Interpretation is provided in Korean.

Interpretation is provided into English, French and Spanish
​Watch live ​​​https://unog.webex.com/unog/j.php?MTID=mabe7bc8e92ec6e11557311bcf357f4b9

Organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Brief description of the session: 
This Forum session is part of the Forum track on trends and challenges in promoting business respect for human rights in the context of each region of the world. Building on the sessions on government action on the Forum’s first day, the “Western European and others”- focused discussions aim to take a closer look at policy innovations and emerging practices on which progress can be built. The session will involve presentations by governments that are moving ahead with regulatory and policy innovations.

Objectives of the session: 

• Share lessons learned from recent government efforts with potential to drive greater policy coherence and reach scale in business implementation of the corporate responsibility to respect human right
• Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue around lessons learned and way forward, including on how to strengthen a race to the top among Western countries.

Format of the session:

• Introduction by the UN Working Group on Business & Human Rights
• Snapshot presentations on innovations and lessons learned: inter-governmental and government perspectives
• Open stakeholder discussion on the way forward

Interpretation is provided in English and Russian.

Organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Brief description of the session: 

This Forum session is part of the Forum track on trends and challenges in promoting business respect for human rights in the context of each region of the world. Building on the sessions on government action on the Forum’s first day, the region focused discussions aim to take a closer look at how to overcome key business-related human rights challenges faced in Eastern European countries and lessons learned from emerging government, business and civil society action.

Objectives of the session: 

- Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue around lessons learned and the way forward, including on how to scale up emerging good practice
- Strengthen a race to the top among governments and business in the region

Format of the session:

The proposed session will be done in a talk show format with the participants having the opportunity to raise questions amongst each other as in a public dialogue. The session is chaired by the Member of the UN Working Group, Elzbieta Karksa

Preliminary agenda: 

• Introduction by Elzbieta Karska
• Kickoff remarks:
  • Civil society coalition reflections on how to overcome key business-related human rights challenges in the region and what emerging practices to build on
  • Business perspectives on how to drive a race to the top in the region
  • Government statements on lessons learned and commitments for going forward
• Roundtable discussion

Interpretation is provided into Spanish.

Session organized by the Responsible Business Alliance and The Consumer Goods Forum.

Brief description of the session:
According to International Labour Organization (ILO), approximately 24.9 million people worldwide are in conditions of forced labor. Supply chains include hundreds of thousands of workers who seek to make a better life for themselves and their families.
Many are subject to conditions that may contribute to forced labor, including high recruitment fees, personal debt, complicated recruitment practices, a lack of transparency about their eventual working conditions, and inadequate legal protections in the countries in which they work.
Guiding principles on forced labor are well-established, however, solutions tend to be fragmented across industries and geographies and only address certain aspects or specific points in a worker’s journey.  Due diligence on forced labor should be harmonized across multiple industries that share recruitment supply chain to drive labor market transformation through collective action.
This session will provide testimonials from companies across multiple sectors on how they address forced labor in their operations and supply chains.  It will review core process to operationalize supply chain due diligence on forced labor while exploring collective action needed with stakeholders to address the root causes of this issue.

Format of the discussion:
The session will be organized via a series of speaker remarks, expert interventions and multimedia content. Session moderators will bring to life the opportunities created by harmonizing obligations, policies, initiatives, and expectations to tackle this difficult issue.
To ground the session, we will use real world examples from companies across industries on the opportunities and challenges in devising solutions.  Speakers from civil society will bring perspectives on remediation, remedy and transparency.  Finally the broader topic will be explored by asking participants to consider how business can work collectively as well as with other stakeholders, to address root causes of forced labor.

Programme:
15:00 – 15:10  Introductory remarks and framing of issue
15:10 - 15:50   Part 1 – Business Responses
15:50 – 16:05  Part 2 – Stakeholder Perspectives
16:05-16:20     Part 3 – Question/Answer and way forward 

Interpretation is provided in English and Spanish

Brief description of the presentation:
Business impacts children everywhere. Children interact daily with the private sector – as family members of workers, employees, consumers, and community members affected by operations and supply chains. The Children’s Rights and Business Atlas is an online tool that uses a wide range of data analysis and manipulation to help transform this interaction and help businesses, investors and industry organizations understand how their actions impact children’s rights globally.

Presentation objectives: 
To discuss how the Children’s Rights and Business Atlas provides a quantitative assessment of children’s rights across 195 countries and territories to offer a comprehensive understanding of how actions impact children’s rights, and the degree to which children’s rights are respected, across the globe in the Workplace, at the Marketplace, and within the Community and Environment. The Atlas harnesses the power of data to bring pragmatic and user-friendly insight into the complex narrative of children’s’ rights, helping provide risk and impact assessment. The Atlas is designed to help business, government and industry stakeholders better understand their impact on children through the use of publicly available country data, industry analysis and practical guidance.

Interpretation is provided into English/French/Spanish

Organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Brief description of the session: 
This Forum session is part of the Forum track on trends and challenges in promoting business respect for human rights in the context of each region of the world. Building on the sessions on government action on the Forum’s first day, the region focused discussions aim to take a closer look at how to overcome key business-related human rights challenges faced in Latin American and Caribbean countries and lessons learned from emerging government, business and civil society action.

Objectives of the session: 
- Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue around lessons learned and the way forward, including on how to scale up emerging good practice
- Strengthen a race to the top among governments and business in the region.

Format of the session:
The proposed session will be done in a talk show format with the participants having the opportunity to raise questions amongst each other as in a public dialogue. The session is chaired by the Chairperson of the UN Working Group, Dante Pesce

Preliminary agenda: 

• Introduction by Dante Pesce
• Kickoff remarks:
  • Civil society coalition reflections on how to overcome key business-related human rights challenges in the region and what emerging practices to build on
  • Business perspectives on how to drive a race to the top in the region
  • Human rights defender statement on his/her experience in working for the respect of human rights by business in the region
  • Government statements on lessons learned and commitments for going forward
• Roundtable discussion

Interpretation is provided in English and Spanish

Description of the presentation:
This “snapshot” presentation will outline the economic argument for why business should be concerned about the global crackdown on civic rights and civil society. In October, The B Team released The Business Case for Protecting Civic Rights, to examine the economic impact of respect for civic rights and civic space. The Business Case for Protecting Civic Rights utilises data from the Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem) to augment the business case for action and explore how a better business environment is linked to greater civic rights and freedoms.

Presentation objectives: 
We plan to speak alongside a company representative that can explain why the protection of civic rights is important to their business operations and their commitment to the UN Guiding Principles

Organized by BSR and The B Team

Session objectives:
The discussion will consider a number of key questions on the minds of business executives, policymakers and civil society. Key objectives include:

• Identifying risks and opportunities for business and investors to improve overall protection for human rights while also improving the business environment
• Sharing examples of business or investor engagement in policy that support human rights, and identifying pressure points from stakeholders
• Acknowledging the critique of undue corporate influence in public spheres, which may undermine rights or deepen inequality, explore and discuss holistic corporate advocacy approaches that respect and support human rights

Background to the discussion:
Around the world, we have seen instances of policy reversals on human rights protections and programs, which were critical to creating the enabling environment for business to respect human rights.  In addition to these policy reversals, many governments continue to have restrictive or discriminatory laws in place towards particular groups, such as women or migrants.
As part of the “protect, respect and remedy” framework, the UN Guiding Principles created a global baseline expectation on companies to respect human rights, while also guiding business to use its ‘leverage’ in business relationships to help governments protect these rights. Exercising business leverage is more complex when human rights impacts are not caused by a company or ‘directly linked’ to its operations, products, and services. 
When states are not fulfilling their duty to protect human rights, how can or should business use its leverage to support human rights in policy engagement?
This interactive session will give participants an opportunity to engage in important questions on businesses’ role in public policy engagement to support human rights, deepening social exclusion and rampant inequality.
 
Session Design Principles:
Informative discussion inviting a diversity of perspectives

1. Participatory and engaging
2. Provides valuable ideas for potential areas of future collaboration
3. Provides valuable ideas for potential areas of future collaboration

Organised by Doughty Street Chambers with Traidcraft and Ethical Trade Initiative

Brief description
The session is intended to discuss the issue of combatting modern slavery in supply chains through the perspective of two sectoral responses and two industries. The session will show two short videos (around 5 mins each) on the Rajasthan Stone Sector and the Assam tea Industry, which are meant to highlight some of the issues and then engender discussion on the question of what could be done to combat modern slavery in supply chains from an industry, NGO and legal perspective.

Session objectives
The objectives for the session are:

• To highlight some of the violations in two important supply chains which the attendees may not be aware of.
• To highlight the current campaign on the transparency in the Assam tea supply chain.
• To highlight the current work that has been done and is planning to be done on the Rajasthan Stone Supply chain.
• To have a greater understanding of what are the barriers to combatting modern slavery in those supply chains.
• To have a greater understanding of why companies are finding difficulties in mapping supply chains.
• To have a greater understanding of what legal avenues may be possible for combatting the most serious human rights violations in supply chains.

Key discussion questions

What are the key lessons from these two sectoral campaigns in:

• Addressing the main barriers to combatting modern slavery in supply chains?
• how companies should enhance their due diligence in supply chains?
• why many companies are not enhancing their due diligence in supply chains?
• what stakeholders can do to improve due diligence in supply chains?
• what lawyers can do to improve due diligence in supply chains?

Format of the session
There will be:

• Short video on Assam Tea Supply chain, followed by a 10 min introduction by Fiona Gooch, on the campaign.
• Short video on Rajasthan Stone Supply chain, followed by a 10 min introduction by Krishnendu Mukherjee on the issue.
• Response by Cindy Berman on the issues raised.
• Further response by Fiona Gooch and Krishnendu Mukherjee
• Discussion from the floor.

Background to the discussion
A backdrop to the discussion is the reluctance of many large companies in the UK to engage with s.54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. By drilling down on lessons from two sectoral case studies, the aim is to generate a discussion rooted in practical examples on how barriers and challenges to progress can be overcome.

Organized by OHCHR

Brief description of the session:
This session will discuss what steps investors in residential real estate should take to exercise human rights due diligence, in line with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, to avoid negative impacts on the right to adequate housing and support the realization of Target 11.1 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ensuring adequate housing for all by 2030).
The session will continue the conversation started at last year’s Forum on Business and Human Rights amongst diverse stakeholders on the ‘financialization of housing’ and its relationship to the realization of the right to adequate housing. In her 2017 report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing called on States and the private sector to give priority attention to the social function of housing and called for more engagement and dialogue between States, human rights actors, international and domestic financial regulatory bodies, private equity firms and major investors.

Session objectives: 

• To consider what practical steps investors in residential real estate should take to exercise human rights due diligence, in line with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, with a focus on measures to avoid negative impacts on the right to adequate housing;
• To consider how real estate investors by preventing adverse human rights impacts will also contribute to the realization of Target 11.1 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (ensuring adequate housing for all by 2030).
• To stimulate debate about remedies that could be employed to ensure access to justice, and accountability of financial institutions and private actors for the right to housing.

Key discussion  questions: 

1. What steps should real estate investors take to exercise human rights due diligence in order to respect the human right to adequate housing?
2. How can States, private actors, and NGOs and others work together to help ensure that real estate investment does not adversely impact the right to adequate housing?
3. What steps can be taken by different stakeholders to promote real estate investment practices that will contribute to the commitments to ensuring adequate housing for all by 2030?

Format of the session:
8:30-8:40 Introduction of the issue by moderator
8:40-9:10 Question
9:10-9:40 Scenario
9:40-9:45 Wrap-up

Background to the discussion:
At a time of rapid urbanization worldwide, the financialization of housing has been linked to soaring land and property values and unprecedented displacement of the poor. Capital investment in real estate is deemed a smart investment with assured returns. Investments of pension funds, for example, demanding strong returns are increasingly moving towards real estate investment. So far, adverse impacts of certain investments in real estate and housing on the right to adequate housing have not received sufficient attention.
Recently, a number of States have started to implement policy responses to prevent adverse human rights impacts of the financialization of housing through taxation and incentives. Also there is an increasing recognition of the independent responsibility of investment institutions to exercise human rights due diligence in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles and other relevant frameworks, such as the OECD MNE Guidelines, OECD guidance for institutional investors, and the Principles for Responsible Investment.
Little attention has been given to the role that private investment in housing must play if States are to realize target 11.1 of the SDGs to ensure access to adequate housing by all by 2030, and how the application of human rights norms and standards with respect to effective remedies in this sphere could alter the role of private investment – from one which undermines the right to housing to one which facilitates its realization.

Interpretation is provided in English, French, Spanish and Korean.


Organized by Ethical Trading Initiative

Brief description
This session would facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue and lesson-sharing on how to engage with vulnerable workers engaging in precarious work in international supply chains, and how to integrate them into corporate human rights due diligence approaches.
Insights will be provided by:

• a leading international trade union representative working to support exploited workers and victims of trafficking;
• a leading multinational company representative who will speak about engaging with migrant workers in the Italian tomato sector;
• a leading researcher and lawyer specialising in business and human rights; and
• a multi-stakeholder initiative representative working with companies, trade unions and civil society organisations on mitigating risks in complex international supply chains.

Session objectives

• Insights into specific approaches to engaging vulnerable workers, adopted by companies, unions, CSOs and researchers.
• A focus on engaging with vulnerable workers who face specific types of challenges such as payment of recruitment fees and lack of representation.
• An improved understanding of different techniques of safeguarding; working to ensure that people seeking to enforce their rights (and also their representatives and whistleblowers) are protected from threats of intimidation, harassment and reprisals.

Key discussion questions

• How should companies work to integrate the rights and needs of vulnerable workers through direct engagment whilst ensuring safeguarding?
• How can businesses mitigate the rise of vulnerable employment in international supply chains through Human rights due diligence?

Format of the session

• Audience participants to pose brief questions to speakers at the outset to frame later discussion.
• Reflections from speakers on their approaches to engagement and safeguarding.
• Interactive engagement with audience on recommended approaches and identfying blockages to effective HRDD with workers in global value chains.

Background to the discussion
Worldwide, around 1.4 billion workers, most of them women, are in insecure jobs or in the informal sector. Supply chains continue to be one of the most important levers for business to create positive impact in the world, with an estimated 80% of global trade passing through them annually. However, in too many places, workers are denied basic human rights, and migrant workers continue to be exploited.

In the drive to bring ever more products to market, people are often seen merely as a commodity, with wages pushed down to cut costs. A lack of formal, independent worker representation fuels and exacerbates the problem. If workers do not have access to workplace rights and protections within supplier companies, nothing changes.

Companies that commit to genuine and effective human rights due diligence processes can both mitigate risks to worker’s rights, but also significantly improve the lives of workers by providing decent work.

Engagement with workers is an essential part of corporate human rights due diligence. Social dialogue is about establishing formal or informal processes that enable workers and employers to negotiate or consult collectively on issues concerning their rights and responsibilities and to resolve conflicts peacefully and effectively.

A growing number of examples show that effective social dialogue between workers on the ‘shop floor’ and managers can contribute to decent work, quality jobs, greater equality and inclusive growth – all of which benefit workers and companies alike.

This session will explore how businesses, trade unions and other organisations are engaging with vulnerable workers in Italy, Spain, Southern Africa and elsewhere, and how they go about attempting to ensure that people seeking to enforce their rights are protected from threats of intimidation or reprisals.

Interpretation is provided into English , French and Spanish

This Forum session led by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights will address new ways to strengthen corporate respect for human rights in conflict and post-conflict contexts. It is part of the consultation process for a Working Group project that will lead to recommendations to governments and business enterprises in a report to the UN Human Rights Council in 2020.

The project will address implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in all stages of conflict, from prevention to post-conflict, including transitional justice. It will cover all three pillars of the Guiding Principles:
- the State duty to protect against business-related human rights abuse
- the corporate responsibility to respect human rights
- the need for access to remedy for victims of business-related human rights abuse

Interpretation is provided in English and Chinese.

Session led by UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and UNDP

This Forum session is part of the Forum track on trends and challenges in promoting business respect for human rights in different regions of the world.
The aim is to facilitate peer learning and multi-stakeholder dialogue around lessons learned. Innovative ideas shall be showcased with a view to scale up emerging good practices and reinforce a race to the top among governments and businesses in the Asia region.

This interactive session will be divided in two parts:
After a brief scene setting from civil society and business representatives, Part I will present key examples of how Governments in the Region are promoting business respect for Human Rights. Representatives of the Governments of Thailand, India, Indonesia, Vietnam among others, will illustrate how they are setting expectations for companies to carry out human rights due diligence (HRDD), changing corporate laws to promote responsible business conduct, creating incentives through public procurement, and taking steps to ensure a bouquet of remedies is available to victims.
In Part II, several inspiring ideas on how to turn HRDD from paper to practice will be presented in TED-Style snapshot sessions. After interaction with the participants, mobile technology will be used to survey the opinion of those present. This will involve solutions considered most innovative, most impactful and worth replicating in other contexts. Initiatives most inspiring and innovative will be given additional dedicated space to illustrate their impact in the two Regional Forums on Business and Human Rights (for South Asia and Southeast Asia) planned for the first half of 2019.  

Program

• Opening/setting the scene (30 mins)
• Part I: Fostering Government Leadership to Set Expectations for Companies to Respect Human Rights (60 mins)
• Break (15 mins)
• Part II:  Pitch Deck: Innovative and Inspiring Solutions to take the UNGPs from Paper to Practice: Snapshot sessions (5 minutes each) followed by Qs and As (80 minutes) through mobile technology to survey their opinion on the innovative value, replicability and scalability of the initiatives 
  • Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact: FPIC Policies into action
  • Caux RT/ANA: Technology to monitor supply chains, Japan  
  • UN Global Compact Network Indonesia: HRDD in the Agri-Food Business Sector
  • Terre des Hommes: Multi stakeholder partnerships to end child labour
  • China Labor Watch: Access to Remedy for workers, China
  • Earth Rights International: NGOs and NHRIs monitoring HR abuses by outbound investments, SEA
  • University of Sussex: National employment injury insurance (EII) schemes in Bangladesh and Pakistan
  • FORUM ASIA: Good practices and possible collective actions to counter legal harassment of Human Rights Defenders

Interpretation is provided in English, French and Spanish.

Organized by NomoGaia, BSR and the Danish Institute for Human Rights

Brief description of the session:
Community engagement in HRIA focuses on 'rightsholders' - the individuals whose human rights are likely to be affected by an operation. Identifying and engaging with rightsholders requires trust building in all contexts. However, trust is harder to obtain and the costs of failure are steeper with particularly vulnerable populations.
 
This session considers good practice in rightsholder engagement in sensitive contexts, building on the experiences of affected rightsholders to both validate and challenge the practices of even leading companies. A rightsholder, scholar, practitioner and company viewpoint will be probed during the round-table session.

Session objectives:

• Draw out consensus on what constitutes good practice in rightsholder engagement
• Delve into the barriers for best practice resulting from community distrust, ongoing state repression, lack of corporate expertise/leverage, social marginalization, etc

Key discussion questions:
What should corporate actors to do differently to ensure their community engagement is meaningful with vulnerable rightsholder groups in challenging contexts?
What can they do if the initial approach is not successful?

Format of the session:
This roundtable discussion will start with brief descriptions of rightsholder engagement processes at HRIAs for companies ENI and Diageo. Then the practitioners supporting those HRIAs will describe challenges and successes in rightsholder engagement, followed by analytical questioning from the researcher/scholar perspective. A roundtable discussion session will follow, before an audience-driven Q&A is integrated.

Background to the discussion
This discussion draws on the unique experiences of  rightholders as well as speakers who have either engaged directly with affected rightsholders in fragile contexts or who have conducted thorough scholarship on meaningful HRDD. It aims to tackle complex questions of how to connect with rightsholders who are reluctant to be critical or express personal opinions, fearing state (or other) retribution. It challenges the assumption that rightsholders are eager to engage with companies or are prepared to discuss the effects of corporate activities on their lives, and it examines ways to overcome such barriers. It considers the possibility that companies might initially struggle to meaningfully engage rightsholders but can create long-term approaches to build trust.

Session organized by Unicef

Short description of the session:
Every business leaves a footprint on children — as family members of workers, employees, consumers, and community members affected by operations and supply chains. The Children’s Rights and Business Atlas is an online tool designed to help business, government and industry stakeholders better understand their footprint, and how inter-related issues including wages, work hours, products, environmental impact, security, and online protection policies, impact children. An online interactive and data-driven platform, the Atlas makes use of publicly available country data to provide a quantitative assessment of children’s rights across 195 countries and territories, and degree to which children’s rights are respected, across the globe in the Workplace, at the Marketplace, and within the Community and Environment.
 
Session Objectives:
The objective of the session is to inform business how it can make use of the Workplace, Marketplace and Community and Environment Indices, country narratives and industry insights provided by the Atlas, to lessen the negative child impact through improved due diligence risk and impact assessment processes based on evidence.
 
Key discussion questions:

• Why is children's rights due diligence especially critical for the achievement of the SDGs? 
• How can the Atlas help businesses to approach comprehensive due diligence? 

Background to the Discussion: 
Children everywhere have rights. These include: the right of every child to provision of a standard of living adequate for health and well-being; the right of every child to protection from neglect, abuse, exploitation and harmful substances; and the right of every child to full participation in family, cultural and social life. Addressing adverse children’s rights impacts requires the taking of adequate measures for prevention, mitigation and, where appropriate, remediation.
Business impacts children daily well beyond child labour. The employment of their family and the broader environmental and community conditions where business operates affect children’s ability to grow, develop and learn. The nature of the work done by children and their family can determine, for example, how women breastfeed, how men and women parent, and how adolescents successfully transition from school to work.
Respect for children’s rights is a shared responsibility. Children represent one third of the world’s underlying population but disproportionately account for half of the world’s poor, highlighting their vulnerability and the necessity of prioritizing children in the fight to eliminate poverty. Business can contribute to sustainable development for all in support of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by taking a child-centred approach to policy and practice.


Refreshments will be served after the session

Interpretation is provided in English, French and Spanish.

Organized by the International Organisation of Employers 

Brief description
This session will focus on how the responsibility to respect human rights applies to SMEs and what can be done to strengthen their engagement on human rights. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) acknowledge that the means through which a company meets its responsibility to respect human rights "will be proportional to, among other factors, its size," adding that SMEs "may have less capacity, as well as more informal processes and management structures than larger companies, so their respective policies and processes will take on different forms."
To date, most awareness-raising, capacity building and policy-related efforts have focused on the world's largest brands and retailers, with SMEs often an afterthought in discussions and initiatives on responsible business conduct and business and human rights. Yet, SMEs form the backbone of national economies and the global supply chains of large companies. They account for about 90% of all businesses (according to the International Finance Corporation) and they contribute up to 45% of total employment (according to the World Bank). Their collective contribution to society and the planet is huge.

Session objectives

• To explore the different challenges and conditions facing SMEs and how awareness-raising and capacity-building efforts and policy measures can be better tailored to support SMEs to respect human rights in line with their respective size, capacity, resources, and impact on human rights.
• To draw attention onto the world's largest category of companies, and away from the usual focus on global brands and retailers – ie: how can we widen implementation of the UNGPs?

Key discussion questions

1. How does respect for human rights, including the human rights due diligence process, apply to SMEs?
2. How do SMEs currently act in a responsible manner and what lessons can be drawn from this?
3. What are the drivers for SMEs to implement the UNGPs? How can more SMEs be encouraged to respect human rights in situations where the drivers are less applicable?
4. What opportunities and challenges face SMEs in respecting human rights?
5. How do policy measures currently impact on SMEs? What policy responses are needed based on these lessons?
6. What practical support can be provided to assist SMEs?

Background to the discussion
Useful links

• In 2017, the IOE developed a "Three-part course for SMEs on Communicating on Sustainability Issues" (together with GRI)
• ENGLISH version
• FRENCH version
• SPANISH version
• 2018: "Human rights due diligence for SMEs" (page 7 of the Companion Note II to the UN Working Group’s 2018 report to the General Assembly on "Corporate human rights due diligence – Getting started, emerging practices, tools & resources")
• 2013: European Commission's "Guide to Human Rights for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises"

http://webtv.un.org/meetings-events/human-rights-council/forum-on-business-and-human-rights/watch/plenary-iii-forum-on-business-and-human-rights-2018/5972698700001

Description
The Forum will conclude with statements by key stakeholder constituencies to:

• Highlight key messages from Forum discussions on how to advance corporate respect for human rights and make human rights due diligence part of standard business practice.
• Reiterate the most critical gaps and challenges as well as the most promising innovations, emerging practices and collective action efforts.
• Hear calls for action from diverse stakeholders on the need for speeding and scaling up implementation of all three pillars of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (“Protect, Respect and Remedy”).

The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights that guides and chairs the Forum will wrap up the event by sharing their reflections on key takeaways and implications for the way forward for all stakeholders, including by taking stock of progress toward their “2020 roadmap” presented at the closing of the 2017 Forum.

Key references

• Working Group report on human rights due diligence to the 2018 General Assembly / executive summary 
• Working Group’s ten key recommendations on connecting the Guiding Principles and the SDGs
• Working Group’s “2020 roadmap”