Can Business Leaders Be More Effective Human Rights Advocates?

Here are some of my personal thoughts as I take up the role of Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Human Rights.

Recent events have once again posed questions about business’ role in society, particularly when it comes...

Rights and Wrongs - Questioning Free Expression in the Workplace

How can companies negotiate their way around deeply divisive political issues where their employees, contractors, suppliers, and associates may have strong convictions and opinions? Can companies keep politics out of their offices? Can they restrain...

Collective Action Needed to Defend the Defenders

Companies that take their responsibility to respect human rights seriously understand the crucial role human rights defenders play in campaigning to make society more transparent, inclusive, and based on the rule of law.

Some companies have begun...

Rights and Wrongs - Business as Usual in Saudi?

One by one, global companies are trying to distance themselves from the Saudi Arabian Government.

The immediate provocation is the shocking disappearance and murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. On October 2, Khashoggi went to the Saudi...

A Landmark Standard for LGBTI Rights

Over the past year, we at the Institute for Human Rights and Business have worked closely with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to develop a new initiative to support companies in respecting and promoting...

Beyond a Simple Trading of Powers: An Alternative Future for the Global Mining Industry?

Observers of the mining industry, including those who are watching from the inside, have witnessed a growing demand for governments to safeguard people and the environment, and for business leaders to take greater responsibility in the prevention...

Killing Investigators Blinds Us All

For those who follow the news, the horrors that people suffer in war seem more visible now than ever before. Yet, there are moments when the hidden contours of war’s violence are driven home to us through the sacrifice of outsiders.

There are...

A Contentious Connection - Business and Women’s Rights

The relationship between business and women’s rights activists and advocates has always been contentious, and more frequently, rife with suspicion and hostility, especially in the global South.  This is not, unfortunately, without reason.

Not only...

Sir Nigel Rodley - A Pioneer in the Struggle for Human Rights

When I started work at Amnesty International in 1999 (I worked there till 2005), my assignment was to help develop thinking, campaigning, and research on business and human rights. It was there that I first met Sir Nigel Rodley, a champion of the...

Standing Rock Sioux - A Model for Protection of Planet and its People

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe met with representatives of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) on October 30, 2014 and learned of their plans to build the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), a 1,172 pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois that would carry...

Protecting Workers Building Sporting Venues – Progress in Qatar

Mega-sporting events focus attention on human rights, however, it is often for a fleeting moment. It requires a great sense of urgency if improvements are to take place. In construction, it means a big, but temporary surge in activity for stadiums,...

Dakota Access Pipeline and the High Cost of Violating Indigenous Rights

Growing concern in the United States over the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) – a 1,172-mile, 30-inch diameter pipeline that will connect the Bakken and Three Forks production areas in North Dakota to Patoka, Illinois – has resulted in a...