13th United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights

The newly introduced BHR Informal Dialogues will offer an open, dynamic platform for inclusive and in-depth discussions on critical issues within the Business and Human Rights (BHR) agenda. These sessions are structured to encourage autonomous, participant-led conversations without formal speakers or panelists, fostering a free-flowing exchange of diverse ideas and perspectives. The aim is to create a collaborative space where all participants can directly engage with one another, enabling meaningful dialogue that promotes deeper understanding of key issues.

By encouraging active participation from all participants, the BHR Informal Dialogues seek to ensure that a broad range of voices contribute to shaping the future of business and human rights practices. This format prioritizes diversity of views and backgrounds, creating a space where different stakeholders can share insights, experiences, and best practices in a flexible and open environment.

Topics for Discussion: The BHR Informal Dialogues will focus on a range of pressing topics, including:

• Just Transition: Discussing how businesses can play a role in facilitating a fair and equitable transition to sustainable practices.

This informal and interactive space is open to everyone and is designed to spark collaborative thinking, drive solution-oriented discussions, and contribute to advancing the global BHR agenda.

Each Interactive dialogue will be facilitated by one or two people to ensure effective and inclusive dialogue. The facilitators will guide the discussion, assist in maintaining a balanced conversation, and ensure that all voices are heard. This structure will help both facilitators and participants to ensure a free-flowing exchange of diverse ideas and perspectives.

There will be no interpretation provided.

The Networking Hubs will provide an open platform designed to facilitate exchanges among diverse groups of stakeholders on the Business and Human Rights (BHR) agenda. These spaces are structured to encourage autonomous, participant-led conversations without formal speakers or panelists, fostering a free-flowing exchange of experiences and perspectives. The aim is to create a collaborative peer learning space within stakeholders, where each stakeholder group can directly engage with one another, fostering meaningful dialogue. 

The format of these spaces leverages the networking essence of the Forum, offering a flexible and open environment for different stakeholder groups to share best practices, challenges, and innovative proposals.  

Stakeholder groups: The Networking Hubs will focus on a range of pressing topics, including: 

• Financial Institutions: Exploring responsible investment practices and their impact on human rights. 

No interpretation will be provided. 

Session co-organized by the Working Group on business and human rights, the Investor Alliance for Human Rights and Principles for Responsible Investment

Interpretation available in English, French and Spanish

(Version française ci-jointe)
(Versión en español adjunta)

Brief description of the session:
A just transition refers to the transition to a green and zero-carbon economy that is fair and inclusive, creates decent work opportunities, reduces poverty and inequalities and upholds the human rights of workers, including in the informal sector, and affected communities, in particular Indigenous Peoples and populations affected by environmental degradation and energy poverty, through social dialogue and meaningful participation in decision-making including on the use of land and natural resources (See A/78/155). Thus, a just transition includes environmental, social, economic, climate change and human rights aspects. Just transition programmes will require adequate and appropriate financing from the private sector, including contributions from the financial sector (like institutional investors and banks). Some States have started introducing a few financial incentives and regulatory measures for businesses and investors to enable a just transition. However, regulatory gaps remain.

Beyond financing and investing in environmentally sustainable business and projects, financial sector actors have various forms of leverage they can exercise to push businesses and States to support sustainable business practices and a global economy. These include stewardship activities targeting investees or responsibly advocating for the creation of an enabling environment, and government incentives and public-private partnerships that address the environmental and social risks inherent to this transition. These all have strengths and limitations. Further, investors and banks must overcome environmental, social and governance (ESG) silos in approaches to sustainability, as a just transition necessitates understanding how environmental, sustainable development and human rights impacts are inextricably intertwined.

Key objectives of the session:
In a complex landscape, a smart mix of both good guidance and targeted regulation plays a role in maximizing the leverage of financial actors to contribute to a just transition. With a focus on renewable energy, and critical energy transition minerals, the panel will discuss key recommendations around how a smart mix of measures, both on sustainable finance and for the real economy, can be implemented to ensure effective policy and finance sector action towards the just transition.

Key discussion questions:

• What leverage can the financial sector and States bring to bear in the transition to a green economy?
• How are those forms of leverage impactful and what are their limitations?
• How can a smart mix of regulatory and voluntary measures and incentives help overcome those limitations and enable a just transition? 

Background to the discussion

• UN Working Group on business and human rights, Investors, Environmental, Social and Governance Approaches and Human Rights (A/HRC/56/55)
• UN Working Group on business and human rights, Extractive Sector, Just Transition and Human Rights (A/78/155)
• UN Working Group on business and human rights, Taking stock of investor implementation of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, (A/HRC/47/39/Add.1)
• OHCHR, Key messages on human rights and a just transition
• Investor Alliance for Human Rights, Investor Guidance : https://investorsforhumanrights.org/sites/default/files/attachments/2024-01/FINAL%20ASI%2C%20HCIJ%2C%20IAHR%20Investor%20Guidance%202.pdf
•   Investor Alliance for Human Rights,  Policy Brief: https://investorsforhumanrights.org/sites/default/files/attachments/2024-01/FINAL%20ASI%2C%20HCIJ%2C%20IAHR%20Policy%20Brief%20%281%29.pdf

Session co-organized by the Working Group on business and human rights and the Office for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Interpretation available in English, French and Spanish

(Version française ci-jointe)
(Versión en español adjunta)

Brief description of the session: 
The use of litigation to achieve progress on climate change and human rights has nearly tripled since the Paris Agreement was reached in 2015. More recently, in 2022 the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 76/300, recognising “the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right”. This recognition followed the UN Human Rights Council resolution 48/13 which acknowledged the right in October 2021. As activists and civil society organizations are increasingly seeking to hold States and businesses accountable for their role in contributing to the multiple planetary crises and related harm to human rights, including those of future generations, climate litigation is being used as a tool to influence policy outcomes or change corporate behaviour. Climate litigation has shown its potential to lead to a smart mix of measures to address climate change and uphold human rights by strengthening regulation, incentives, policies, corporate practices, and benchmarking. This has in turn led to an increased emphasis on the role of businesses, including their need to conduct human rights due diligence with environmental dimensions. While some emerging multistakeholder initiatives are trying to tackle these issues, the question remains of how States and businesses can better collaborate with civil society organizations and other stakeholders to raise awareness and increase implementation of human rights-respecting frameworks in the context of climate change.      

Key objectives of the session: 

• Provide an overview of climate change and human rights litigation globally and regionally. 
• Set out the case and evidence for putting climate change and human rights into the boardroom, through the lens of a human rights-based economy.  
• Highlight opportunities and benefits for States and businesses to accelerate their actions on climate change and human rights, by addressing commonly perceived barriers.  
• Discuss tangible steps on how different stakeholder groups and rightsholders can move forward to ensure the effective promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, including implementation.  

 
Additional background documents: 

• UN Working Group on business and human rights communication to Saudi Aramco and financial institutions on climate change and human rights  
• UN Working Group on business and human rights Information note on climate change and the UNGPs  
• UN Working Group on business and human rights report on Extractive sector, just transition and human rights (A/78/155) 
• UN Working Group on business and human rights Open let