BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS – ASPECTS OF
INTERNATIONAL LAW AND DEVELOPMENTS AT THE UNITED
NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
Friday 24 October 2014, University of Oxford
PROGRAMME
09:00 to 09:25
REGISTRATION, TEA AND COFFEE
09:25 to 09:45
WELCOME AND PRESENTATION OF BACKGROUND
PAPER
Vuyelwa Kuuya, Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, Oxford
University
09:45 to 11:15
SESSION ONE
THE PROPOSED TREATY
This session will discuss the need for a treaty imposing responsibilities on corporations for
human rights. The possible form of the proposed treaty and the political realities of treaty
negotiation will also be outlined in this session.
Chair
Panellists
:
:
Jolyon Ford, Chatham House
Dr. David Bilchitz, University of Johannesburg
Tricia Feeney, Rights and Accountability in Development
Marie-Claire Cordonier-Segger, Centre for International Sustainable
Development Law
11:15 to 11:30
TEA AND COFFEE
11:30 to 13:00
SESSION TWO
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF BINDING
INSTRUMENTS
The advantages and disadvantages of binding instruments, especially a binding instrument
imposing responsibilities for human rights on corporations, will be discussed in this
session.
Chair
Panellists
:
:
Dapo Akande, Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, University
of Oxford
Masataka Nagoshi, Japan Permanent Mission to the United Nations
Carlos Lopez, International Commission of Jurists
Professor Sheldon Leader, University of Essex
13:00 to 14:00
LUNCH
14:00 to 15:30
SESSION THREE
PRINCIPLED PRAGMATISM AND THE GUIDING
PRINCIPLES ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
(GP’s)
The focus of this panel will be on the successes & limitations of the GP’s. Discussion will
be based on corporate and state adoption of the GP’s and other issues like the extraterritorial regulation of corporations, corporate complicity in human rights violations and
remedies.
Chair
Panellists
:
:
15:30 to 17:00
Ingrid Gubbay, Hausfeld LLP
Andrea Shemberg, London School of Economics and Political Science
Marion Croser, CORE
Rae Lindsay, Clifford Chance LLP
SESSION FOUR
COMPLEMENTARITY BETWEEN A TREATY AND
SOFT LAW AND ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF
CORPORATE REGULATION
This panel will challenge the idea that it is either only a treaty or only the GP’s that will be
effective. It will explore the ways in which the GP’s can shape the development of a treaty
and how a treaty can lead to better and further implementation of the GP’s and other soft
law.
Possible alternatives to corporate regulation will also be explored during this session.
Examples include establishing a special business and tribunal; using the existing
international human rights law framework & other innovative and previously untested
ways of imposing corporate responsibilities for human rights.
Chair
Panellists
:
:
Hugo Slim, Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, University of Oxford
Phil Bloomer, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
Rachel Chambers, Essex University
Vuyelwa Kuuya, Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, University of
Oxford
17:00 to 17:10
CONCLUSIONS AND VOTE OF THANKS.