Global Advocacy - UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

12th United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights

Since its first session in 2012, the annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights has brought together thousands of participants from governments, international organizations, business, civil society, trade unions, communities, lawyers, and academia from around the world. Centred on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the Forum provides a unique multi-stakeholder platform for discussing key trends and challenges in implementing and advancing the UNGPs.

Established by the UN Human Rights Council, the Forum is guided and chaired by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. It is organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

After many years of normative development, the Forum reflected on the actual changes that have occurred in the implementation of the UNGPs. These include the actions that States have taken to incorporate UNGP requirements through regulation and policies, the extent to which businesses have applied these standards in their practices throughout their operations, and whether judicial and non-judicial remedies in this area are more available and accessible to those negatively impacted by business-related human rights abuses.

Some of the topics that the ECLT Foundation covered during the event included:

1. Resilient and Responsible Global Supply Chains: Are Partnerships the Answer?
2. We wanted workers, but human beings came”: Human Rights Gaps in Temporary Labour Migration Programmes
3. Update on the process to elaborate a legally binding instrument on business and human rights
4. The updated OECD Guidelines – a new roadmap for tackling climate change
5. Stakeholder Perspectives on Implementing the UNGPs across the Global South
6. Worker-driven remedy in global supply chains: a practical perspective
7. Gender-responsive human rights due diligence: from inclusion to effective protection
8. Unseen and Unheard: The Cost of Ignoring Children in Human Rights Due Diligence
9. The role of youth in promoting effective change in the business and human rights agenda
10. Business and Human Rights in Challenging Contexts: Considerations for Remaining and Exiting