Listen to this  FREE webinar to hear from a range of experts…

Speakers

Professor Robert McCorquodale

Robert is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at the University of Nottingham, a barrister and mediator at Brick Court Chambers, London, and the Founder of Inclusive Law, a consultancy on business and human rights. Robert has over 25 years of experience working in business and human rights. He is published widely in this area, including by empirical research, has advised business of all sizes, assisted governments around the world, been involved with civil society, industry and organisations in drafting legal changes and in litigation. This has included capacity building, legislative proposals and training, as well as interviewing and qualitative research. He has appeared as an advocate before the International Court of Justice and the United Kingdom Supreme Court, and as a legal expert before United Nations bodies.

Rachel Barrett, Partner at Linklaters

Rachel co-leads the Business and Human Rights practice at Linklaters, an international law firm based in London. She has been at the forefront of advising businesses on the application of human rights standards in a range of contexts including mergers and acquisitions, project financings, and crisis and risk management. She has particular expertise in the development and financing of major energy and infrastructure projects, and on schemes designed to provide remedy to those affected by adverse human rights impacts.

Colleen Theron,CEO 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. 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 recently published a chapter ‘Modern Slavery and Transparency in Supply Chains – the Role of Business’ in The Modern Slavery Agenda: Policy, Politics and Practice in the UK’. 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.

Elisabetta Colombo, SDGs Product Manager V.E, An Affiliate of Moody’s

Elisabetta joined V.E in August 2011. Since then she has been working as analyst within the finance pillar, specialising on the insurance sector.  Presently Manager of the Human Resources Thematic Group and Sustainable Development Goals Product Manager, she works on portfolio analysis for Italian clients. Elisabetta also had significant work experiences in London and Brussels (PIRC – Pensions and Investment Research Consultants – Corporate Social Responsibility Unit of DG Enterprise and Industry EU) and holds an MSc in Social Development Practice (UCL-University College London).

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 an increasing area of focus for regulators, investors, NGOs, supply chains and consumers. Increasingly, they want to know how companies and organisations understand their human rights responsibilities, manage their risks and provide remedy when they find examples of poor practice.

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).

This practical webinar will include expert commentary from the eminent speaker panel on human rights due diligence in principle and practice, and specifically why the EU legislation has been proposed and what it seeks to address, the legislative requirements for businesses and the legal implications of non-compliance, and what investment managers want to see reported, where, when and how.

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This webinar is paired with Ardea International’s online workshop ‘Developing an Environmental and Human Rights Due Diligence Framework’, which takes place on 15 June. When you register for the webinar, you qualify for a 10% discount to the training. Contact us for the discount code.

You may also be interested in Business & Human Rights online training and support programme