Establishing Effective Helpdesks on Business and Human Rights 26 June 2024, 14-15h Palais des Nations, Room XXII (in-person only) and Call for Inputs

 

 

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Capacity building is a critical part of any regulatory project. It is particularly helpful where the administrative apparatus of a public or private collective seeks to guide its members toward a evolving set of expectations and behaviors. That, essentially, is the point at which the business and human rights community finds itself. Its vanguard of leading social forces--institutionalized within the academy and public international organizations, along with leading organs of liberal democratic civil society, have it in mind to reshape the orthodoxy of behaviors around the fundamental objective of preventing-mitigating-remedying adverse human rights impacts along certain lines. Those lines represent one of several plausible approaches to the operationalzation of the principles and expectations embedded in the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights.

Fair enough--legitimacy of collective meaning making is invariably reduced to a somewhat crude function of the control of the administrative organs through which power over narrative and implementation is exercised. And that power is almost always guided by the leadership of the vanguard of social forces, however they may be recognized within a political-economic system. It is in the manner of the delivery of the guidance, and the forms of that collective leadership, that there may be several possible paths available, each with distinctive benefits and consequences (both positive and negative).

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That vanguard has it now in mind to build on the concept of the help desk in order to better build capacity, but in a way that may be guided and practices along a variation of the liberal democratic orthodox path. A magisterium (an official teaching office — in the sense of role or authority, not a bureaucratic center), then, may be the principal path toward the realization of the orthodox vision of a highly regulated and compliance oriented business and human rights environment (see, eg. here for the European version of the vision).

But one does not develop a help desk from the bottom up--nor necessarily with a view to enlarging the primacy of human rights holders who tend to bear the consequences of adverse human rights impacts. Instead, it tends to be more efficient to target those collective organs into which positive responsibility for the care and protection of human rights harms bearers authority are vested. While the result may be to objectify the bottom--the individuals who are the object of all of this activity--the benefits, from the perspective of techno bureaucrats and the institutions they populate--may be worth the objectification. 

The Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, along with the UN Working Group for Business and Human Rights along with the Geneva Human Rights Platform, and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Geneva office--a virtual top level People's Political Consultative Conference of leading business and Human Rights organs--now seeks to exercise consultation on the form and function, as well as the targets, for a mass push toward the construction and operation of systems of help desks to facilitate the embedding of the appropriate expectations and drivers for business and human rights. An invitation has been extended to those ends:

It is my pleasure to invite you to an event on Establishing Effective Helpdesks on Business and Human Rights taking place on Thursday, 26 June 2024 @ 14-15h in Geneva, Palais des Nations, Room XXII. The event, which is co-organized by OHCHR, the Geneva Human Rights Platform, and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Geneva office, aims to discuss how to establish effective helpdesks on business and human rights at the global, regional, and national levels that can work together to strengthen the understanding and implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We encourage you to join to discuss how such initiatives can be most helpful to States, business, civil society, rights holders, and others. Please note that this is an in-person only event taking place in Geneva. If you are unable to join, it would be great if you could encourage any colleagues you may have that are based in Geneva to come.

Bravo. The focus is on the bearers of responsibility. The object to help them meet those responsibilities in ways that align with contemporary expectations by those public collectives who drive an understanding of the structures and premises around which compliance based regimes for managing economic activity through the lens of human rights (and now sustainability) presume is the best approach. One deals, then. with high level compliance and operations at the macro-institutional level. One does not deal directly, with the agency of individual rights bearers, who remain, as they have for a while, objects of all of this activity. Perhaps that is necessary--something that is not for me to say, It's disciplinary focus, though, can indeed be a powerful instrument of coordination and control.

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Sadly I will not be able to attend. Those of you who have an opinion or who might be able to offer constructive input, are urged to consider attending.

For those who might not be able to attend this high level event, it may be useful to write up inputs, which can be delivered to the group and which might contribute to their decision making, or at least their thinking about this project.

My own input will follow in a later post.

The "Concept Note" for the event follows below along with the names of those who will be managing the process.

 

Establishing Effective Helpdesks on Business and Human Rights

26 June 2024, 14-15h
Palais des Nations, Room XXII (in-person only)

Concept note

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) were unanimously endorsed by the Human Rights Council in 2011. They have since been recognized as providing the globally-accepted, authoritative framework for what States and businesses are expected to do to respectively protect and respect the full range of human rights across all business contexts. Regulatory measures developed at the national and regional levels are increasingly inspired by or based on the UNGPs. However, the growing success and use of the UNGPs has increased the need for capacity-building measures that can ensure consistent implementation and interpretation, including to avoid fragmentation in the understanding of the normative content of the UNGPs.

In their roadmap for the next decade of business and human rights and report on building capacity for the implementation of the UNGPs, the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights has called for the establishment of global and national helpdesks to help ensure the realization of the UNGPs.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has since began work to establish a Helpdesk on Business and Human Rights at the global level, the primary aim of which is to provide uniform interpretative advice and capacity-building regarding the UNGPs. The proposed helpdesk would provide a single point of entry for States, businesses, civil society and other actors to seek advice from business and human rights experts at OHCHR.

At the national level, few helpdesk initiatives exist, though one key example is the German Helpdesk on Business and Human Rights, which, since 2017, has supported companies on the implementation of effective human rights and environmental due diligence in line with the UNGPs.

In the context of growing developments on business and human rights worldwide, the provision of such helpdesks can make a significant positive impact on corporate respect for human rights and the effective implementation of relevant legal requirements. At the same time, in order for such helpdesks to meet the capacity-building needs in the field, harmonize interpretation and implementation of the UNGPs, and respond adequately to requests received from stakeholders, important practical questions will need to be answered, including regarding how best to ensure the complementarity of such initiatives.

Drawing from the research brief Parameters for a Global Helpdesk on Business and Human Rights published by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Geneva office, this panel discussion – co-organised by the Geneva Human Rights Platform, Friedrich-Ebert- Stiftung Geneva office, and OHCHR – aims to discuss how to establish effective helpdesks on business and human rights that can overcome the practical challenges such initiatives may face and work together to strengthen the understanding and implementation of the UNGPs.

Speakers:

• Welcome remarks: Nada Al-Nashif: United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights

• Moderator: Robert McCorquodale: Chairperson, UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

• Jenny Ohme: Coordinator, German Helpdesk on Business and Human Rights

• Stefania Di Stefano: Project Officer, Geneva Human Rights Platform

• Lene Wendland: Chief, Business and Human Rights Section, Office of the UN High Commissioner for

  Human Rights

• Matthias Thorns: Global Labor Relations & Human Rights Director, Samsung Electronics