The NOVA BHRE Blog

On 9 and 10 of September 2025, Homa -Brazilian Institute for Human Rights and Business, together with the Brazilian National Human Rights Council (CNDH), Friends of the Earth Brazil (FOEi), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Worker´s Union (CUT), Movement of people Affected by Dams (MAB), Justiça Global, and Instituto Lavoro, organised a regional seminar on human rights and business in Latin America with the participation of civil society organisations, trade unions, human rights defenders, academia and members of parliament from different Latin American countries such as Brasil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.

A year ago, we gathered at Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon for a full day of reflection and discussion. Today, as conversations around corporate sustainability, human rights, and environmental responsibility continue to unfold, we look back at the Fourth Annual Conference of the NOVA Centre on Business, Human Rights and the Environment (NOVA BHRE).

In this blog post, our research associate, Malindi Assubuji, examines the potential transnational implications of the CSDDD. Against the backdrop of the European green transition and the growing demand for critical raw materials (CRMs) sourced from Africa, the piece highlights how African suppliers are likely to be indirectly affected by the directive. It also outlines how this moment creates an opportunity to develop an African-owned Business and Human Rights framework, one that safeguards the interests of African citizens, suppliers, and resource-rich states while promoting responsible business conduct and mitigating the risks of legal neo-colonialism.

It has been some time since business and human rights experts began to view a binding treaty as a realistic prospect — at times with more optimism than others, as what once seemed merely foreseeable has slowly started to feel attainable. Yet it is today’s political and economic context, marked by the recent demise of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and regulatory rollbacks in several countries, that gives the UN Binding Treaty renewed significance as a means of filling this emerging regulatory gap.