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Tuesday, November 26
 

9:00am CET

BHR informal dialogues: Development Finance Institutions
Tuesday November 26, 2024 9:00am - 9:40am CET
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.

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.

Topics for Discussion: The BHR Informal Dialogues will focus on a range of pressing topics, including:
  • Development Finance Institutions (DFIs): Assessing the role of DFIs in promoting business practices that respect human rights.

Objectives
- Raise awareness about DFIs’ responsibility in protecting human rights and ensuring public participation.
- Discuss and identify potential measures on how DFIs should strengthen their safeguards and accountability.

Guiding questions:
- What specific strategies can DFIs adopt to promote a safe civic space and ensure meaningful public participation in development projects, while promoting human rights in their business practices?
- How can development finance institutions strengthen their accountability mechanisms to ensure effective access to remedy for communities affected by their investments?

Speakers
avatar for Anabella Sibrian

Anabella Sibrian

Defensora de derechos humanos, Protection International Mesoamérica
Defensora de derechos humanos guatemalteca, con más de 20 años de experiencia trabajando en ese ámbito en organizaciones internacionales. Ha venido participando en los foros de las Naciones Unidas sobre las empresas y los derechos humanos desde 2012 acompañando personas defensoras... Read More →
avatar for Nina Lesikhina

Nina Lesikhina

Executive Director, Global Compact Network Australia
I am the Executive Director of the Global Compact Network Australia (GCNA); the Australian chapter of the world's largest business-led sustainability initiative, The United Nations Global Compact. I am a responsible business expert with over 15 years of experience in corporate affairs... Read More →
Tuesday November 26, 2024 9:00am - 9:40am CET
Room XIX

10:00am CET

Do National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights Work in the Asia-Pacific?
Tuesday November 26, 2024 10:00am - 11:20am CET
Session organized by the Working Group on Business and Human Rights 

Brief description of the session: 
After a decade of implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), national action plans on business and human rights (NAPs) have increasingly become a mainstay in efforts to promote business and human rights (BHR) in the Asia-Pacific region. Thus far, nine countries have adopted a NAP or similar document. But as civic spaces continue to recede in this region, are these NAPs truly enough to help ensure that business-related human rights abuses are being systematically addressed and prevented? How can NAPs be implemented in ‘hard’ places to ensure that ‘rights-washing’ – whereupon NAPs simply become a box-ticking exercise for States and businesses – does not happen? Will real implementation only happen once mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) measures are put in place? And how can the third pillar of the UNGPs – access to remedy – be better integrated into the design and execution of these plans?

This session brings together experts and practitioners of BHR to assess the effectiveness of NAPs in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as discuss the progress made and challenges that remain in terms of their implementation. Further, speakers will reflect on positive practices that should guide how NAPs are developed, implemented, and enforced. The session will be conducted in a ‘fireside chat’ format, such that speakers are asked to provide frank responses to a series of trigger questions and interactive engagement with the audience will be prioritized.

Key questions: 
  • To what extent are the NAPs that have been developed or which are developing in the region aligned with the UNGPs and other key international instruments such as the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct and the ILO’s MNE Declaration and International Labour Standards?
  • How can genuine multi-stakeholder dialogue and participation, including of stakeholders at the grassroots level, be effectively ensured in NAP development and implementation processes?
  • When should NAPs be updated and revised? Are there good practices or lessons learned that can be drawn upon in the revision of the NAPs?
  • How can ‘rights-washing’ be prevented in the development and implementation of NAPs in the Asia-Pacific region?
  • How can we know if a NAP has succeeded or failed?

Additional background documents:
 
Moderators
avatar for Pichamon Yeophantong

Pichamon Yeophantong

Member, UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
Ms. Pichamon Yeophantong is Associate Professor and Head of Research at the Centre for Future Defence and National Security, Deakin University. She also leads the Responsible Business Lab and the Environmental Justice and Human Rights Project, which are funded by an Australian Research... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Shin Young Chung

Shin Young Chung

Attorney at Law, Advocates for Public Interest Law/ Korea Transnational Corporations Watch
Tuesday November 26, 2024 10:00am - 11:20am CET
Room XIX

11:40am CET

‘Smart Mix of Measures’ and Implications of European Legislative Developments in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Tuesday November 26, 2024 11:40am - 1:00pm CET
Session co-organized by the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the Polish Institute for Human Rights and Business (PL), Y. Mudryi National Law University (UA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)  
 
Interpretation provided in EnglishChinese and Russian. 

Brief description of the session:

Central and Eastern European and Central Asian countries are increasingly taking action to address the adverse impacts of business activities on people and the environment. This trend is being amplified by their varying levels of integration with the European Union—whether as EU member states, countries aspiring for accession, or due to close economicpolitical and other ties. With the adoption of EU regulations, particularly the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), due diligence requirements in the EU AI Act and CoE Framework Convention on AI and Human Rightsas well as national human rights due diligence requirements in countries like France and Germany, Central and Eastern European and Central Asian countries are facing new expectations. 

This session will explore the practical implications of these recent European legal developments on how business is done in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, from the perspectives of multiple stakeholders. It will focus on how governments are adapting their domestic legal frameworks to align with the new legally binding standards, and how businesses are preparing to meet these new obligations, particularly regarding enhanced human rights due diligence, how AI could be used in human rights due diligence. Furthermore, the session will examine how rights holders in the region can leverage these regulatory developments to ensure their rights are respected and to access effective remedies. 

Key objectives of the session: 
  •  Exchange insights on the challenges faced by businesses and governments in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia as they work to meet the new European regulatory requirements, share methodologies for implementation, emerging practices and common mistakes.  
  •  Discuss how rights holders, including workers, worker organizations, and civil society groups, can use these regulatory changes to promote better models at national level, demand accountability and access remedies for human rights abuses within the region. 
Speakers
avatar for Lyra Jakuleviciene

Lyra Jakuleviciene

Vice-chairperson, UN Working Group on business and human rights
Ms. Lyra Jakulevičienė is an international legal scholar specialising in international and European Union law, human rights law in particular, for more than two decades. She is a Professor and the Dean of the Law School of Mykolas Romeris University in Lithuania. She has extensive... Read More →
avatar for Alise Artamonova

Alise Artamonova

Associate, COBALT Legal
Alise is a business and human rights (BHR) lawyer from Latvia practicing in the ESG practice group of COBALT Legal – a pan-Baltic law firm. She is advising businesses and investors on integrating human rights and environmental considerations into their policies, contracts and processes... Read More →
ZK

Zsofia Kerecsen

Team leader – Corporate governance, Company Law Unit of DG JUST of the European Commission
avatar for Nina Tevdorashvili

Nina Tevdorashvili

EGS Manager, Akhalkalaki Hydroelectric Power Plant
My name is Nino (Nina) Tevdorashvili, and I am a sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) expert with over 19 years of experience across the energy, oil, gas, social, environmental, governance, and banking sectors. My work spans environmental assessments, stakeholder... Read More →
DH

Dr. Hab Ewa Flaszynska

Ministry of Labour of Poland
Tuesday November 26, 2024 11:40am - 1:00pm CET
Room XIX

1:20pm CET

Networking hubs: Academia
Tuesday November 26, 2024 1:20pm - 2:40pm CET
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 groupsThe Networking Hubs will focus on a range of pressing topics, including: 
  • Academia: Sharing research insights and theoretical perspectives on BHR developments.  

No interpretation will be provided. 


Tuesday November 26, 2024 1:20pm - 2:40pm CET
Room XIX

3:00pm CET

Addressing Racism Online: A Smart Mix of Measures for Rights-Respecting Content Moderation
Tuesday November 26, 2024 3:00pm - 4:20pm CET
Session co-organized by the Working Group on business and human rights and 7amleh. 

Interpretation in English, French and Spanish 

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


Brief description of the session:
 
From user-facing platforms to humanitarian tools and services, the tech sector, and in particular social media, has an ever-increasing impact on individuals and groups in the most vulnerable situations, including people of African descent and communities of colour. The failure to address the dissemination of hatred that incites discrimination on social media seriously undermines the promise of business and human rights - that is to provide a framework to prevent and remedy abuses by businesses, including tech companies, of internationally recognized human rights. Where online content moderation systems fail to effectively detect such content, it can risk increasing incitement to violence, and can hinder the enjoyment of a variety of human rights online and offline, including the right to life, the right to physical integrity, the right to health, freedom from non-discrimination,. As the Secretary General of the United Nations indicated in the organization’s Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, hate speech is a menace to democratic values, social stability and peace. 

Regardless of investment and resources, social media companies face specific challenges in their content moderation efforts to mitigate the spread of such harmful content. Electronic communication services, social media platforms and search engines provide an ideal environment for the delivery of a range of narratives, including those that may constitute incitement to discrimination and violence.. Individuals or groups systematically targeted by incitement to violence or discrimination, including racist attacks, are generally left without any effective means of defense, escape or self-protection, and often find themselves in situations of enhanced vulnerability. There is an increasing recognition of the deep impact of such systemic oppressions on mental health. As various studies have shown, harassment alone in comparatively limited environments can expose targeted individuals to extremely elevated and prolonged levels of anxiety, stress, social isolation and depression and significantly increases the risk of suicide, which may amount to psychological torture. Broadly speaking, incitement to discrimination and/or violence, including on the basis of race, not only affects targeted groups of people, but exercises greater influence on society at large, exacerbating divisions,  fractures and strengthening polarization within society. The above-mentioned elements become more meaningful when we consider the rising importance that young people attach to cyberspace, and the latter's potential to influence their choices and values. In this context, this session will explore the potential of collaboration by different stakeholders to ensure a smart mix of measures that leads to a human rights-respecting approach in online content moderation for social media platforms. 

Key objectives of the session: 
  • Analyze current initiatives in the context of content moderation in relation to incitement to hatred and discrimination targeting people of African descent and ethnic and racial minorities on social media. 
  • Identify good practices and challenges, including a smart mix of measures to protect and respect human rights in the context of social media content moderation. 
  • Discuss concrete steps and actions that States, businesses, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders can and should take to implement the UNGPs for social media content moderation, and provide affected individuals and groups with effective access to remedy. 

Key discussion questions: 
  • What are the challenges for rights-respecting content moderation, especially in the Global South and in non-English speaking markets?  
  • How can social media companies mitigate potential adverse human rights impacts through rights-respecting content moderation and human rights due diligence processes?  
Moderators Speakers
JA

Jalal Abukhater

Advocacy Manager, 7amleh
avatar for Siobhán Cummiskey

Siobhán Cummiskey

Director of Content Policy, Meta
Siobhán Cummiskey is a Content Policy Director at Meta where her global team writes and interprets policies governing what content people can share on Meta’s platforms and how Meta complies with content based regulation. Prior to joining Meta in 2012, Siobhán practiced as a lawyer... Read More →
AM

Angela Minayo

Article19
Tuesday November 26, 2024 3:00pm - 4:20pm CET
Room XIX

4:40pm CET

Towards more effective corporate accountability in Latin America: prevention, remediation and participation in the design of measures
Tuesday November 26, 2024 4:40pm - 6:00pm CET
Session co-organized by the Business and Human Rights Working Group, International Federation for Human Rights.
 
Brief description of the session:
This session seeks to analyze normative, regulatory, public policy and institutional trends in business and human rights in Latin America, to delve into challenges and opportunities to achieve greater effectiveness in the implementation of existing and developing frameworks, as well as to achieve greater access to justice when abuses occur. Given the particularities of the region, the panel will reflect on how due diligence becomes an effective tool for prevention, how to move towards more effective corporate accountability in Latin America, and how substantive participation can be guaranteed, with the voice of those in most vulnerable situations at the center, including an intersectional perspective with an ethnic and gender focus. Likewise, the panel will seek to explore lessons learnt from strategies focused on value chains and from multi-stakeholder initiatives that promote public-private cooperation. Finally, it will seek to reflect on some specific regulatory challenges that arise in Latin America, which has become a strategic region for the just transition, as a supplier of critical minerals and also given its wealth of biodiversity and the need to promote conservation and combat deforestation more effectively.

Key objectives of the session:
This session will seek to analyze normative, regulatory, public policy and institutional trends in business and human rights in Latin America, and their implementation, in order to improve respect for human rights in the context of business activities, achieve greater corporate accountability and advance access to effective and comprehensive remedy, considering the specificities of the regional context, and the approach from the value chains, putting people at the center.

Context of the discussion:
Latin America has made significant progress in the area of business and human rights, materialized in the use of the UNGPs as a common platform for action and a minimum standard for different actors, including governments, companies and investors, civil society, national human rights institutions, among others. However, challenges in the region persist, facing long-standing structural problems that, in some cases, are exacerbated by socio-environmental conflicts that occur within the framework of the activities of national and transnational companies operating in Latin America.
The efforts of States in the region to prevent and mitigate the impacts of the business sector and, eventually, remedy them, have been focused on National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights, and/or on the growing search to develop specific sectoral policies that regulate the economy. Likewise, civil society organizations, as well as some national governments, have begun to promote processes for the elaboration of laws on corporate responsibility to respect human rights and the environment, such as Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Chile. In addition, and considering the globalization of supply chains and the transnational nature of a large part of business operations and impacts, regulatory advances in other regions such as the European Union, and countries such as France, Norway, Germany, among others, are also a key part of the discussions in Latin America.
These regulatory advances take on a particular dimension given the characteristics of the Latin American region, where many countries are major exporters of raw materials and recipients (and competitors) of investments. The persistent negative impacts require the identification of gaps at the regulatory and public policy level, but also the improvement of existing ones, as well as their effective implementation through greater supervision, oversight and technical and budgetary resources, that is, strong public institutions. No less important is improving access to justice, eliminating or minimizing obstacles to comprehensive and effective reparation.
The regulatory and institutional ecosystem that influences and regulates business activities is extremely broad and is made up of constitutional norms, laws and regulations, as well as specific regulatory frameworks such as mining codes and just transition policies, extending to public tendering and contracting regimes, and environmental impact assessment procedures, among others. In order to advance in the respect for human rights in the context of business activities, an smart mix of measures and policy coherence is needed that aims to increase accountability, guarantee greater legal responsibility and better access to remedy.
With this ecosystem as a reference, this session will seek to analyze some normative, regulatory and institutional trends at a regional level and delve into challenges and opportunities to achieve greater effectiveness in the implementation of existing and developing frameworks, as well as greater justice when violations occur, which considers rights holders at the center. Due diligence permeates the discussions on the business and human rights agenda, so this panel seeks to analyze how this foundation of Pillar II of the UNGPs constitutes an effective instrument of prevention, allowing progress towards greater corporate accountability in Latin America, incorporating the specificities of the Latin American legal system, as well as the particularities of the region, and adding the perspective of potentially affected people at the center, guaranteeing effective participation, and the intersectional perspective with an ethnic and gender focus.
The session will reflect on initiatives developed throughout the value chain and the work of multi-stakeholder alliances that allow us to think of creative solutions that have a positive impact on society as a whole, especially on most vulnerable populations. Building innovative solutions challenges us to work together with stakeholders throughout the entire value chain, to achieve mechanisms that contribute to the measurement of impacts (cumulative and synergistic), traceability, social well-being, respect for human rights and care for the environment. Hence the importance of having concrete experiences developed through the value chains of different sectors, based on dialogue and cooperation of stakeholders, at the public and private level.
Finally, the panel will seek to delve into some specific regulatory challenges that arise in new contexts that Latin America is going through, such as that of the just transition. This includes REDD+ projects, whose regulation, in many countries in the region, is insufficient to guarantee the protection of human rights and, in particular, those of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. These new instruments, which arise as a response to the efforts of States to advance strategies to reduce and mitigate greenhouse gases, entail new challenges and tensions at the regulatory and implementation level. Including these particularities in the debate is extremely relevant in Latin America, a region that suffers from high levels of deforestation and that is home to large areas of jungle and forests such as the Amazon and the Gran Chaco, which transcend the border limits of the countries.

Moderators
avatar for Fernanda Hopenhaym

Fernanda Hopenhaym

Chairperson, UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
Ms. Fernanda Hopenhaym is Co-Executive Director at Project on Organizing, Development, Education and Research (PODER), an organization in Latin America dedicated to corporate accountability. For twenty years, Ms. Hopenhaym has worked on economic, social and gender justice. Since 2006... Read More →
Speakers
avatar for Carolina Mejia Micolta

Carolina Mejia Micolta

Abogada, Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá
Carolina tiene experiencia en áreas jurídicas de diferentes compañías, en temas de Derecho Comercial y Corporativo. En los últimos cuatro años ha trabajado en organizaciones empresariales como la Asociación Nacional de Empresarios de Colombia y actualmente en la Cámara de... Read More →
avatar for Gabriela Quijano

Gabriela Quijano

Especialista/Asesora Independiente sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos FIDH, Especialista/Asesora Independiente sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos FIDH
Gabriela Quijano es especialista y asesora independiente en derechos humanos y empresas. Trabaja con organizaciones y redes de la sociedad civil en el análisis y elaboración de normas y propuestas legislativas, investigación de casos, litigio estratégico, y desarrollo de estrategias... Read More →
avatar for Walter Quertehuari

Walter Quertehuari

Presidente, ECA Amarakaeri
ES

Edmilson Santos dos Santos

Ministérios dos Direitos Humanos e da Cidadania
Tuesday November 26, 2024 4:40pm - 6:00pm CET
Room XIX
 
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