I am delighted to pass along to interested readers an excellent new online symposium organized by the marvelous Caroline Omari Lichuma and Lucas Roorda and appearing on the blog site of the Business and Human Rights Law Journal. Entitled Symposium on Business and Human Rights (BHR) Regulatory Initiatives Outside Europe, it means to expand the conversation about human rights from out of its hub in the UN apparatus in Geneva and begin exploring in more depth the sometimes extraordinary developments occurring outside the highest reaches of elite curation in the global North.
To take stock of these developments, we have organized a blog symposium around BHR developments outside of the EU. We are very grateful to have received 12 excellent and thought-provoking contributions by a diverse group of authors, which offer insightful and timely analyses of BHR regulatory developments (primarily) outside Europe and hopefully spur critical reflection among the BHRJ Blog readership on the dominant narratives of transnational business regulation. The contributions will be published on a daily basis. * * * This symposium seeks to do more than take stop of developments in BHR regulation. It also marks the launch of the new BHRJ Blog. Over the past months, we as blog editors (Caroline Lichuma and Lucas Roorda) have worked on a new website designed to facilitate more variety in the types of contributions the blog can support, catalyze more discussion in the BHR field and feature an even greater diversity of voices.
The cumulative product of these engagements is neither to suggest the imperatives of revolutionary transformation, nor to paint a picture of a global discourse on human rights that suggest accumulating differences producing incomprehensible divides between pathways of development of human collectives around notions of the imaginaries of organizing societies around the "rights" of "humans." Indeed, the opposite seems to be true--that the global communities are all now deeply considering and thinking through engagement with human rights; in a sort of extraordinary turn from a century ago, it is human rights discussion that tends to drive much of the global conversation.
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The initial essay authored by Omari Luchuma and Roorda, "Setting" that Stage" follows below (and may be accessed HERE in the original). It includes a summary of the twelve (12) contributions that will follow. Contributors include Bonny Ling; Keren Adams; Jernej Letnar Černič; Barnali Choudhury; Larry Catá Backer; Jonathan Kabre; Cristine Lucena and Nathalie Laureano; Lisa LaPlante; Erika George and Enrique Martinez; Pradeep Narayanan, Dheeraj and Jhumki Dutta; and Kazuko Ito.
The BHR Blog Symposium essays links follows.
Symposium on Business and Human Rights (BHR) Regulatory Initiatives Outside Europe: Part 5: Barnali Choudhury--"BHR Developments in Canada: Targeting Low Hanging Fruit"
Symposium on Business and Human Rights (BHR) Regulatory Initiatives Outside Europe: Part 8: Rimdolmsom Jonathan Kabré--"Business And Human Rights In Africa in The Era of The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)"
Symposium on Business and Human Rights (BHR) Regulatory Initiatives Outside Europe: Part 9: Cristiane Lucena Carneiro and Nathalie Albieri Laureano --"Regulatory Initiatives on Business and Human Rights in Brazil – From the Domestic to the International and Back? "
Symposium on Business and Human Rights (BHR) Regulatory Initiatives Outside Europe: Part 10: Lisa J, Laplante, "The United States 2024 National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct"Symposium on Business and Human Rights (BHR) Regulatory Initiatives Outside Europe: Part 11: Erika George and Enrique Samuel Martinez, "The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act: An Assessment Of Enforcement Efforts"
The last decade has seen momentous strides in incentivizing and ensuring responsible business conduct, particularly as this relates to human rights, the environment and climate change. At the international level, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) remain the dominant framework of reference in the debate on corporate accountability, supplemented by the work of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights generally and many others. Notably, a UN Business and Human Rights treaty is currently being drafted, although its future remains uncertain.
Recently, the regulatory impetus has decidedly shifted from global to regional and national developments. Moreover, as countries oscillate between soft norms and voluntarism on the one hand, and hard obligations and binding law on the other, the center of gravity seems to move towards the latter – arguably informed by the limited voluntary uptake of BHR norms. As may be (very) familiar to most working in the field, European countries such as France, Germany and Norway have implemented so-called mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence (mHRDD) laws to oblige companies to conduct (a form of) human rights due diligence in their operations. Outside of Europe, a diverse group countries such as Brazil and South Korea have also considered the adoption of mHRDD laws. This movement is not universal: in contrast, a number of African countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria have instead opted to first adopt National Action Plans on BHR, and are, for the time being, not considering legally binding obligations.
Arguably however, one recent development stands out. The recently adopted EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) has eclipsed many other debates, at least in academic and policy discussions. Significant effort has been spent dissecting the Directive in various, inter alia, academic, policy and political circles; other contemporaneous developments are compared to the standards set by the EU. This is for good reason: whether or not the CSDDD sets proper standard for sustainable and rights-compliant business governance, the EU’s central position in the global economy ensures it sets the benchmark for a significant number of corporations and transnational supply chains. Moreover, it is the first binding instrument that also covers non-EU domiciled companies; simply put, it makes a big splash.
But while the Directive is undoubtedly a seismic development, it may also be good to take a step back and critically assess other, perhaps less visible developments outside of Europe. If we understand the existing global economic model as building on the foundations of colonialism, and containing a plethora of Eurocentric assumptions about how law, business and rights (should) interact, it would be self-defeating to then reify the EU’s approach to this problem at the expense of others. Other states are working out their own approaches to transnational business regulation and accountability, either completely independently from, or in response to the EU’s measures. It is also important to see these (legal) developments in the context of the shifting sands of the global economy, as other states and economic blocs start asserting themselves against the states currently in the centers of power.
The Inaugural Symposium
To take stock of these developments, we have organized a blog symposium around BHR developments outside of the EU. We are very grateful to have received 12 excellent and thought-provoking contributions by a diverse group of authors, which offer insightful and timely analyses of BHR regulatory developments (primarily) outside Europe and hopefully spur critical reflection among the BHRJ Blog readership on the dominant narratives of transnational business regulation. The contributions will be published on a daily basis, in the following order:
Bonny Ling kicks off the symposium with an analysis of BHR developments in Taiwan. Her contribution offers insights into the Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct that are in the process of being adopted as the preferred regulatory tool in Taiwan. Crucially, she highlights the impact of developments outside Asia (primarily the mandatory approach favored in the EU) on the Taiwanese national context, and on the EU’s attempts to make BHR regulation part of ongoing trade negotiations and partnerships.
Keren Adams follows up with an analysis of the Australian Modern Slavery (AMS) Act, which was adopted in 2018, and subjected to an independent statutory review in 2023. She offers critical insights into the progress and pitfalls in the implementation of the AMS in the five years since its entry into force, also in the light of other similar instruments.
Jernej Letnar Černič’s contribution is the only one that discusses the European geographic area, as it explores BHR developments in an often (and unjustifiably) less-discussed part of Europe: the Western Balkans. He highlights the idiosyncrasies shared by the Western Balkans countries and addresses the underexplored challenges and possibilities for BHR developments in this region.
Barnali Choudhury then critically reflects on Canada’s Modern Slavery Act (MSA) which came into force on the 1st of January 2024. Her assessment gives readers an excellent overview of the MSA and identifies a number of areas of concern, also reflecting on (the lack of) lessons learned from other instruments tackling modern slavery.
Concluding week one of our symposium, Larry Catá Backer dives into the Chinese path for BHR. Offering a thorough and theoretically grounded analysis, he illuminates how uniquely national and ideological characteristics of China and Chinese socialism have shaped the development of BHR.
In the second week of the symposium, we begin with Sang-Soo Lee who analyzes the situation in South Korea, offering insights into three regulatory episodes that explain the current state of BHR there. This includes a due diligence law proposed in 2023 but whose future remains uncertain. Just like Kazuko Ito and Bonny Ling, Sang-Soo Lee draws our attention to how developments in the EU have an impact in Asia.
Jonathan Kabre offers an analysis of BHR in Africa, focusing in particular on developments surrounding the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). His contribution offers a much needed look at Africa’s contribution to advancing the BHR agenda, and its intricate relation with the creation of an African economic bloc.
Cristiane Lucena and Nathalie Laureano subsequently address the situation in Brazil, one of the world’s rising economic powerhouses with a very specific relation to economic globalization and the development of transnational supply chains. Their contribution offers readers an insightful overview of how domestic and international BHR initiatives overlap in the Brazilian context.
The following two contributions to the symposium analyze two different aspects of BHR regulation in the United States of America (USA). Lisa Laplante offers an analysis of the 2024 United States National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct. She expounds upon the priority areas covered by the NAP and reflects upon the USA’s softer approach to BHR that seems to balance being both pro-business and pro-human rights. Shifting gears a little bit, Erika George and Enrique Martinez offer a detailed assessment of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act which entered into force in 2022. Their contribution introduces readers to the risks which this Act is meant to respond to and offers insights into enforcement and compliance efforts to date.
Discussing another rising economic powerhouse, Pradeep Narayanan, Dheeraj and Jhumki Dutta reflect upon the situation in India by focusing on the Indian Mandatory Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) framework. Crucially, they show the need to move beyond a Global North gaze in order for BRSR reports to become a genuine tool for social and economic justice in India.
In the final contribution to the symposium, Kazuko Ito highlights the regulatory developments in the Japanese context. Best read together with Bonny Ling’s contribution, Kazuko Ito also shows how the Japanese approach has relied upon Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct. Like the Taiwan piece, the Japan piece also offers crucial insights on the impact of EU policies and regulations abroad.
A New BHRJ Blog Website
This symposium seeks to do more than take stop of developments in BHR regulation. It also marks the launch of the new BHRJ Blog. Over the past months, we as blog editors (Caroline Lichuma and Lucas Roorda) have worked on a new website designed to facilitate more variety in the types of contributions the blog can support, catalyze more discussion in the BHR field and feature an even greater diversity of voices. We want to build on a vision already started by our predecessors, the previous BHRJ blog editors (Felogene Anumo and Sandhya Drew), and the board of the Journal itself: to establish the BHRJ Blog as a critical, multidimensional and topical platform where academia, practice and civil society can meet, and where early career researchers and practitioners are welcomed as much as established authors. We hope this symposium is a good example of this approach, and that contributions to be published in the coming two weeks inspire you to submit your own posts; perhaps to one of the future blog symposia. Our mission at the BHRJ Blog is to diversify the business and human rights discourse and to do that we need your voices and perspectives, which we welcome on a rolling basis.
Of course, development of this new website is still ongoing, as the old blog’s archive will be moved to the new website, new features will be added, submission guidelines will be updated and kinks in the current design will be worked out. We welcome your feedback to help us improve: do let us know what you value as a reader, what you would like to see featured, and whether there are aspects of the blog that hamper your reading experience.
For now, we turn our attention first to BHR developments outside Europe. We hope that you will enjoy this symposium as much as we enjoyed curating it.
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