Fourth Annual Conference of the NOVA BHRE
On the 19th of November 2024, the Fourth Annual Conference of the NOVA BHRE will take place. This year’s topic is: Unpacking Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence. The conference will be held in Lisbon at the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (Zona de Congressos, Auditórium 2).
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,” aims to explore how to implement in practice starting from the commitment to respect human rights and the environment in a meaningful way, and then exploring 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 will also highlight the importance meaningful stakeholder engagement throughout these stages. The conference will gather 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 the NOVA Green Lab and with the support of PLMJ, CEDIS, and FCT.
Opening Session
- 9:00-10:00
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 and Vice-Dean of NOVA School of Law and Director of the NOVA Centre on Business, Human Rights and the Environment
Panel 1: Meaningful Human Rights and Environmental Commitment
- 10:00-10:45
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:
Salah Husseini, Human Rights Director, BSR
Joana Freitas, Board Member, Transparency International Portugal
Paulo Câmara, Professor, Universidade Católica Portuguesa and partner at Sérvulo law firm
Nichole Solomons, UN Global Compact Portugal
Q&A
- 10:45-11:15
Interventions by Youth Ambassadors
Plenary discussion
Coffee Break
11:15-11:45
Panel 2: Identifying and prioritizing impacts
- 11:45-12:30
Keynote Speaker: Julia 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, ECCHR
Chiara Macchi, Assistant Professor of Law and Coordinator of Education at Wageningen University & Research – Law Group
Q&A
- 12:30-13:00
Interventions by Youth Ambassadors
Plenary discussion
Lunch Break
- 13:00-14:00
Panel 3: Taking appropriate measures to address adverse impacts
- 14:00-14:45
Keynote Speaker: Caroline Lichuma, Postdoctoral researcher of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance, of the University of Luxembourg
Chair:Alison Holm, Associate Professor, NOVA SBE
Panel:
Olena Uvarova, Associate Professor, Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University in Ukraine
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
Q&A
- 14:15-15:15
Interventions by Youth Ambassadors
Plenary discussion
Coffee Break
15:15-15:45
Panel 4: Tracking and Reporting/Communicating
- 15:45-16:30
Keynote Speaker: Lucila de Almeida, ESG Chair, NOVA School of Law
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
Q&A
- 16:30-17:00
Interventions by Youth Ambassadors
Plenary discussion
