Third Annual Conference of the NOVA BHRE

On the 26th of September 2023, the Third Annual Conference of the NOVA BHRE took place. This year’s topic was: Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence: From Law to Practice. The conference was held in Lisbon at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Zona de Congressos, Auditórium 3).

 

Concept note

The corporate responsibility to respect human rights has become a global norm reflecting social expectations for all companies wherever they operate, and even more so since the unanimous endorsement of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011. The UNGPs clarify that, in order to meet that responsibility, companies are expected to exercise human rights due diligence. In other words, companies should have processes in place in order to identify and address the actual and potential adverse human rights impacts with which they may be involved. The concept of human rights due diligence has since been extended to other fields such as the environment and climate change and become the cornerstone of responsible and sustainable business conduct. A growing number of States have adopted or are in the process of adopting mandatory human rights due diligence legislation, whilst at the EU level, the Draft Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is being discussed. Against the backdrop of these legislative developments, one of the main challenges remains how to translate sustainability due diligence from law to practice. The aim of this conference is to bridge the gap between law and practice and explore the implications of corporate sustainability due diligence (CSDD) in the management of global value chains, the role of technology in that respect, the requirements of responsible disengagement and the measures to ensure access to remedy when harm does occur.    

 

The corporate responsibility to respect human rights has become a global norm reflecting social expectations for all companies wherever they operate since the unanimous endorsement of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) by the Human Rights Council in 2011.

The UNGPs clarify that, in order to meet that responsibility, companies are expected to exercise human rights due diligence. In other words, companies should have processes in place in order to identify and address the actual and potential adverse human rights impacts with which they may be or become involved. The concept of human rights due diligence has since been extended to other fields such as the environment and climate change and become the cornerstone of responsible and sustainable business conduct.

A growing number of States have adopted or are in the process of adopting mandatory human rights due diligence legislation, whilst at the EU level, the Draft Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive is being discussed. Against the backdrop of these developments, one of the main challenges remains how to translate these requirements into practice.

 

The aim of this conference was to bridge the gap between law and practice and explore the implications of corporate due diligence in the management of global value chains, the role of technology in that respect, the requirements in relation to responsible disengagement and the measures needed to ensure access to remedy when harm does occur.

 

This conference was organised in collaboration with NOVA SBE and the NOVA Green Lab with the support of PLMJ, the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, CEDIS, FCT, the Embassy of Canada to Portugal and the ERA Chair in Social Innovation.

 

Conference conveners: Claire Bright, Laura Iñigo Álvarez and Alison Holm

Bios of the Speakers

Opening Session

 

Panel:

Panel 1: Global expectations in relation to CSDD and implementation challenges

 

Keynote speech: Livio Sarendrea, Global Policy Advisor, Business and Human Rights, UN Development Programme

Chair: Rita Sacadura Orvalho, Senior Counsel, PLMJ

Panel:

Panel 2: Business, Human Rights and Technology

 

Keynote speech: Marcia Narine Weldon, Professor of Law, University of Miami

Chair: Giulia Priora, Assistant Professor at NOVA School of Law and Coordinator of the NOVA Knowledge Centre on Intellectual Property & Sustainable Innovation

Panel:

Panel 3: Responsible Disengagement

 

Keynote speech: Sinisa Milatovic, Business and Human Rights specialist, UNDP

Chair: Laura Iñigo Álvarez, Lecturer at NOVA School of Law and Scientific Coordinator of the NOVA BHRE

Panel:

  • Miguel Ferreira, BPI | Fundação “la Caixa” Chair Professor in Responsible Finance and Vice-Dean for Faculty and Research of Nova SBE
  • Céline da Graça Pires, Business and Human Rights specialist
  • Cannelle Lavite, Co-Director ECCHR
  • Leonard Feld, Advisor on Human Rights, Business and Tech at the Danish Institute for Human Rights

Panel 4: Due Diligence and Remedy

 

Keynote speech: Karin Buhmann, Professor of Business & Human Rights, Copenhagen Business School (CBS) and Professor at the University of Southern Denmark and Director of the Centre for Law, Sustainability and Justice

Chair: Lucila de Almeida, Nova School of Law, Abreu Chair of ESG Impact and Coordinator of the NOVA Green Lab at NOVA School of Law

Panel:

Concluding Remarks

 

Panel:

  • Lídia Farropas, Head of Sustainable Development Unit, Directorate-General for Economic Activities of the Portuguese Ministry of Economy and Sea
  • Laura Iñigo Álvarez, Lecturer at NOVA School of Law and Scientific Coordinator of the NOVA BHRE
  • Alison Holm, Assistant Professor, NOVA SBE

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