On the 19th of November 2024, the Fourth Annual Conference of the NOVA BHRE took place. This year’s topic was: Unpacking Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence. The conference was held in Lisbon at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Zona de Congressos, Auditórium 3).
Concept note
The legal landscape in the field of Business, Human Rights and the Environment and ESG is changing rapidly to crystalize the increased expectations from consumers, investors and civil society for companies to adopt responsible and sustainable business conduct. At the international level, the authoritative instruments in the field, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises have set out the expectation for companies to respect human rights and the environment in their activities and global value and detailed the way in which companies can operationalize this responsibility. In particular, this is through the implementation of human rights and environmental due diligence processes allowing companies to identify and address the adverse human rights and environmental impacts with which they can be involved. At the national and European levels, these societal expectations are increasingly being turned into hard law through the emergence of mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation. The latest development in this perspective is the recent adoption of the European Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive which will have implications not only for large companies in-scope but also, indirectly, through a much broader array of companies (including SMEs) through the trickle down effect.
Against this backdrop, the 4th Annual NOVA BHRE Conference, entitled “Unpacking Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence,” explored how to implement in practice starting from the commitment to respect human rights and the environment in a meaningful way, and then explored how to ‘walk the talk’ through the various steps of the due diligence process: identifying and prioritizing impacts, taking appropriate measures to address such impacts, tracking the effectiveness of the responses and reporting /communicating. It also highlighted the importance of meaningful stakeholder engagement throughout these stages. The conference gathered speakers from multistakeholder groups including policymakers, businesses, civil society organizations, academics from different fields as well as youth ambassadors, to provide different perspectives on the issues.
Organizing committee: Claire Bright, Ana Duarte, Céline da Graça Pires, Alison Holm, Laura Iñigo Álvarez and Anaïs Tobalagba, in partnership with NOVA SBE as well as NOVA Green Lab and with the support of PLMJ, CEDIS, FCT and the Embassy of Canada to Portugal.
Opening Session
Panel:
Margarida Lima Rego, Dean of NOVA School of Law
Elise Racicot, Ambassador of Canada in Portugal
João Rui Ferreira, Portuguese Secretary of State for Economy
Aua Baldé, Chair-Rapporteur of UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Bruno Ferreira, Managing Partner, PLMJ
Claire Bright, Associate Professor at NOVA School of Law and Director of the NOVA Centre on Business, Human Rights and the Environment (NOVA BHRE)
Panel 1: Meaningful Human Rights and Environmental Commitment
Keynote Speaker: Fernanda Ferreira Dias, General Director of the Portuguese Ministry of Economy
Chair: Bernardo Ivo Cruz, Invited Professor at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and at Nova School of Law, Former Portuguese Secretary of State for Internationalization
Panel:
Nichole Solomons, Global Lead of Business and Human Rights Accelerator, UN Global Compact
Salah Husseini, Human Rights Director, BSR
Joana Freitas, Board Member at Transparency International Portugal and Compliance Officer at Voltalia
Paulo Câmara, Professor, Universidade Católica Portuguesa and partner at Sérvulo law firm
Panel 2: Identifying and prioritizing impacts
Keynote Speaker: Julia Borgianni-Batho, Deputy Chief Executive, Institute for Human Rights and Business
Chair: Anaïs Tobalagba, Visiting Researcher at the NOVA BHRE and Legal and Policy Researcher at Raid
Panel:
Céline da Graça Pires, Human Rights Specialist and Research Associate at the NOVA BHRE
Francisco Granja de Almeida, Legal Counsel & Human Rights Specialist, Galp
Cannelle Lavite, Co-Program Director Business and Human Rights, ECCHR
Chiara Macchi, Assistant Professor of Law and Coordinator of Education at Wageningen University & Research – Law Group
Panel 3: Taking appropriate measures to address adverse impacts
Keynote Speaker: Caroline Lichuma, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre of Human Rights Erlangen Nuremberg (CHREN)
Chair: Alison E. Holm, Assistant Professor in the Strategy sub-area, Nova SBE, and a Research Associate at the Nova Center for Business, Human Rights and the Environment at Nova School of Law
Panel:
Olena Uvarova, Associate Professor at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University (Ukraine) and Visiting Researcher at Wageningen University, Law Group.
Jenny M. Hoobler, Professor of Human Resource Management and Academic Director of the Leadership for Impact Knowledge Center, NOVA SBE
João Mestre, Head of Sustainability, Fidelidade
Grace Camara, Senior Legal Advisor & Garment Sector and Apparel Lead, Global Rights Compliance
Panel 4: Tracking and Reporting/Communicating
Keynote Speaker: Lucila de Almeida, Professor holder of the Abreu Chair in ESG at NOVA School of Law and Director of the NOVA Green Lab
Chair: Laura Iñigo Álvarez, Postdoctoral Researcher and lecturer at NOVA School of Law and Scientific Coordinator at the NOVA BHRE
Panel:
Paula Guimarães, Sustainability Director, The Navigator Company
Sophie Grenade, Senior Policy Advisor, IndustriAll European Trade Union (online)
Rebecca Burton, Deputy Director, Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA)
Catherine McDonald, PhD Candidate at the Institute for Business Ethics, University of St Gallen
Concluding Remarks
- 17:00-17:30
Angus Warren, Chief Executive Officer for Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges
Ana Santos Duarte , Research Associate at the NOVA BHRE
Beata Faracik, Co-founder and President of the Board of the Polish Institute for Human Rights and Business
Youth Ambassadors
Panel 1: Gabriel Araújo and Malindi Assubuji
Panel 2: Sita Krenzke and Luís Prata Castro
Panel 3: Sofia Braga and Viola Weis
Panel 4: Luiza Rocha and Sara Pacheco
