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Speakers

Colleen Theron, Ardea International

Colleen is a tri qualified lawyer with over 25 years of legal and commercial experience of working with business, organisations and NGOs across sectors on both a strategic and operational level and Fellow of IEMA. She provides advisory services, training and online resources to both directors and employees on human rights, modern slavery and sustainability issues. Colleen has an LLM (with distinction) in Environmental Law from the University of Aberdeen. She sits on the advisory board for LexisPSL Environment and was nominated as one of the Top 100 Corporate Modern Slavery influencers in the UK in 2018.

Sebastian Galindo, iPoint-systems

As a project manager and management consultant at iPoint, Sebastian is responsible for the implementation of software solutions in material compliance areas such as Conflict Minerals, REACH, and RoHS. Prior to that, he worked at Daimler and VW as an expert for sustainability in supplier relations. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Göttingen. Additionally, he lectures on “Life Cycle Assessment” at the University of Reutlingen.

Felicity Bone , Ethical manager Nutmeg (part of Morrisons)

Felicity is an Ethical Trading Manager at Morrisons, covering their Nutmeg clothing and general merchandise ranges. Having originally studied architecture, she has a Masters degree in CSR in the fashion industry, and over ten years of experience in human rights and sustainability in the garment industry. She has worked for both high street retailers and on the supply side, giving her insight into the challenges faced by different actors in the supply chain, and has travelled extensively throughout garment production hubs in the Far East and Southeast Asia.

Lea Esterhuizen, Founder &Wider

Lea is a data specialist and founder of &Wider. &Wider is a worker voice or worker engagement provider, offering companies a direct line to the workers in their own workplaces through mobile engagement.

The webinar will last 60 minutes and includes a question and answer session. At the point of registration you will have the opportunity to submit questions you would like to our speakers to respond to on the live webinar.

Unable to join us on the day? We will record this webinar. If you are unable to attend live, please register and we will send you a link to the recording after the webinar and a link to download the speakers’ presentations and other outputs.

Context

Human Rights due diligence is a growing area of focus for regulators, investors, NGOs, supply chains and consumers. Increasingly, they want to know how companies and organisations understand their human rights due diligence responsibilities, manage their risks and provide remedy when they find examples of poor practice. The increased scrutiny is borne of a collective desire to see corporations, especially those in the developed world with offshore business models, better fulfil their global responsibility to ensure observance of fundamental principles, such as the prohibition of child and forced labour. 

Furthermore, in response to an announcement last year that the European Commission is to introduce legislation for mandatory corporate human rights and environmental due diligence, the European Parliament has voted in favour of a report setting out the recommendations for corporate due diligence and corporate accountability. The draft directive requires businesses that fall within its scope to carry out mandatory due diligence in relation to the potential human rights and environmental impacts of their operations and value chains. This demonstrates the direction of travel for all legislatures – including in the U.K. despite our exit from the E.U. 

The legislation will apply to all companies operating in the EU internal market, including those from outside the EU. The binding EU due diligence rules will oblige companies to identify, address and remedy aspects of their value chain (all operations, direct or indirect business relations, investment chains) that could or do infringe on human rights (including social, trade union and labour rights). Sitting alongside the proposed EU legislation, Germany has introduced its own corporate due diligence in supply chains legislation, known as Leiferkettengesetz. The implication for British businesses is moot for those who trade within Germany and/or who have shared supply chains. 

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This webinar is paired with Ardea International’s Business & Human Rights online training and support programme When you register for the webinar, you qualify for a 10% discount to the training beginning on 6 October 2021. Contact us for the discount code