Law and Business and Human Rights

Catalog description

Increasingly businesses are confronted with human rights challenges whether in managing global manufacturing supply chains dressing privacy issues in the Information technology industry security issues in the extractive industries or confronting child and forced labor in agriculture. Over 14 sessions this course will examine these and other issues divided into three segments The first segment will examine the origins and substantive content of international human rights standards. It will examine the implementation of these standards at a national and international level and the range of remedies when governments fail to comply with these standards.The second segment will explore the effects of globalization and the increasing imperative for global businesses to address human rights challenges in their core business operations. These issues become especially relevant in states with a weak rule of law and a lack of willingness or capacity to protect the rights of their own people. In addressing the responsibility of businesses to respect human rights we will apply a framework similar to that which we discussed in the first segment standard-setting implementation and the provision of appropriate remedies. the third segment we will take a case study approach examining how business and human rights issues manifest themselves in global manufacturing the extractive industries information and communication technology companies and in agriculture. We also will explore how the investment community is addressing these issues. Finally we will look ahead and anticipate where the field of business and human rights is headed and how corporate leaders and lawyers can help develop models of sustainability for businesses in the human rights realm.