Happy to pass along the announcement of information about the 15th annual Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva:
REGISTRATION NOW OPEN: The UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights has opened registrations for the 15th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, taking place in Geneva from 23–25 November 2026.
As the world’s largest annual gathering on business and human rights, the Forum brings together stakeholders from governments, businesses, civil society, trade unions, international organizations, Indigenous Peoples, affected communities, academia, students and others from around the world to discuss the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
THEME: UNGPS AT 15: BUILDING ON GAINS, CONFRONTING GAPS, REIMAGINING THE FUTURE
📅 23–25 November 2026
📍 Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
🔗 Register now: https://lnkd.in/dCD3hMZA
🌍 Forum website: https://lnkd.in/dKv-fwaN
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| Pix credit here (Current members of the UNWGBHR) |
The Forum website may be accessed HERE.
The theme this year, UNGP at 15; Building on Gains, Confronting Gaps, Reimagining the Future, suggests the sort of transformation that might be seamlessly built into the architecture of a thoroughly bureaucratized framework over, around, and through the UNGPs, one with a distinctive normative bent that has become increasingly evident over ther arc of 15 years (no criticism there, that is what normatively motivated nomenklatura do in a regulatory supervision cognitive operational system after all) appears to be transformation. But it appears to be transformation not nece4dssartily at the level of theory, but at the translation of the elevolved orthodoxy about what the UNGP opught to produce into the structures, and operaitonalization strategies for community and civil society organization. "The goal is for participants to leave the Forum with examples of measures that proved effective to advance UNGPs’ implementation, a renewed sense of hope for the future of business and human rights, and strengthened commitments to concrete action." (Concept Note). That is also fair; it does suggest an orientation that exists in a space beyond conversation about the range of the possible, focusing instead on the operationalization of the fundamental political line under the leadership of the UNGP Working Group. That is also fair and the essential function of a vanguard organizaiton. But it also suggests the framework around which opposition, theoretical and operational might also develop, but out of sight and a sharing of discursive space with the events at the Forum.
Still, safe spaces for such operational events and its orthodoxies are important and even more so the way that the UN apparatus has signaled its own political and normative choices by providing and nurturing them in the form and for the tasks to which the 15th Forum appears to be focused. So it will be useful to see, hear and review of the text of what they might have in mind, and to find its most interesting elements encased within the ritualized performance that have come to mark the Forum especially post COVID.As always there will be a lot to be learned, important connections to be established, and objectives based relationships to be deepened and put in motion--and there are lots of objects against which these elements are likely to seek to push back: the European retrenchment, the transformation of US approaches that tie human rights to national security, and the substantial challenge of adjusting Geneva orthodoxies to the development oriented lens of Marxist Leninist internationalist approaches.
The Concept Note may be accessed here and follows below in English:
Concept note:
English | French | Spanish
Call for session proposals:
English | French | Spanish
The Agenda may be accessed here: https://forumbhr2026.sched.com/
As in prior years (post COVID) officials have also distributed thios notice: "The Secretariat of the Forum received a very large number of submissions from a range of stakeholders. Please note that due to the current financial situation and related limited resources, this year’s Forum will feature a reduced number of agenda slots.
About the Forum:
The UN Forum on Business and Human Rights is the world's largest annual gathering on business and human rights. Since its inception in 2012, it has brought together every year thousands of participants from governments, business, civil society, trade unions, international organisations, Indigenous Peoples, affected communities, academia and others from around the world. Last year there was a record number of over 4,600 registered participants, the vast majority in-person at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Many others followed the discussions on UNWebTV. Centred on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the Forum provides a unique multi-stakeholder platform for discussing key trends and challenges in implementing and advancing the UNGPs.
The Forum is created, organized and managed entirely by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (|). The Working Group sits within Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council and is supported by a Secretariat based at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
For those interested there is still time to organize side events:
As in previous Forums, those wishing to organize side-events in Geneva around the dates of the Forum should explore options outside of the UN premises and keep the Forum organizers informed viaohchr-forumbhr@un.org. We request those organizing side-events to refrain from scheduling them during the Forum’s official hours (10.00am to 1.00pm and 3.00pm – 6.00pm). Only side-events that are organized outside of these official hours can be advertised on the official Forum website.
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