Business and Human Rights Forum

Overview

The Business and Human Rights Forum (formerly the 'HRDD Forum') is a leading membership-based platform for legal practitioners, academics, policymakers, and other experts working at the intersection of business and human rights. Its mission is to provide a space for rigorous reflection, peer learning, and policy engagement as the field evolves.

Since its foundation in 2018 under the name 'UN Guiding Principles Forum', the Forum has grown and adapted in response to shifting legal, regulatory, and corporate expectations. Over time, it has broadened its remit - from a primary focus on human rights due diligence (HRDD) - to a more holistic approach to business and human rights, including remediation, access to justice, climate-human rights linkages, climate change litigation, modern slavery in supply chains, and emerging challenges like AI, and human rights impacts of new business models. It has also integrated business and human rights issues with other branches of law including competition law and investment law.

The BHR Forum provides a trusted, membership-based space for legal and policy experts to share experiences, test emerging ideas, and compare national and sectoral developments. It connects legal practitioners with academic and empirical research to ensure robust discussion on business and human rights issues. The Forum monitors regulatory, judicial, and enforcement trends and facilitate targeted dialogue with policymakers and international bodies.

The Forum is structured around thematic roundtables and an annual conference, each focusing on priority topics in the business and human rights space.

Download the Forum Brochure

Podcast Series

Reimagining the Law: Business and Human Rights

The "Reimagining the Law: Business and Human Rights" podcast series aims to discuss business and human rights issues in different contexts and provide short conversations to engage and reflect on for lawyers working in business and human rights.

Listen here >

Episodes

Vicky Bowman CMG

In this episode, Dr Jasmine Elliott speaks with Vicky Bowman CMG, Honorary Senior Fellow at BIICL and former Director of Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB). They talk about the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business as a collective action initiative amongst businesses and between businesses and civil society, and Vicky reflects on how learnings from the Centre can be applied in other contexts.

Further resources:
Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business
Sector Wide Impact Assessments

John Sherman III

In this episode, Dr Jasmine Elliott talks with John Sherman III, a business and human rights expert and an internationally recognized thought leader, about the implications of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights for legal practice. They discuss the updated IBA Guidance Note on Business and Human Rights and its key takeaway messages for lawyers.

Discussed in this episode:
Updated IBA Guidance Note on Business and Human Rights: The role of lawyers in the changing landscape
IBA publishes second edition of the IBA Guidance on Business and Human Rights for Bar Associations
American Bar Association Resolution 604 urges lawyers and law firms to avoid causing or contributing to adverse human rights impacts in representing business clients in a manner consistent with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Contract Cancellation and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Responsible Contracting Project's Friend of Court Brief Before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Ben Vanpeperstraete

In this episode, Dr Jasmine Elliott speaks with Ben Vanpeperstraete, senior legal advisor at the ECCHR. They talk about key HRDD topics highlighted in BIICL's recently published report, Towards New Human Rights and Environment Due Diligence Laws: Reflections on Changes in Corporate Practice.

Discussed in this episode:
Towards New Human Rights and Environment Due Diligence Laws: Reflections on Changes in Corporate Practice - BIICL (2024)
Pakistani trade unionists take stock: The Supply Chain Act protects workers and trade unions on the ground! - ECCHR (2024)
Missed opportunity: No improvements in sight for labor and union rights at KiK supplier in Pakistan - ECCHR (2024)

Robert McCorquodale

In this episode, Dr Jasmine Elliott talks with Robert McCorquodale, a member of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights. They talk about Robert's recently published book, Business and Human Rights, and more broadly about his career in business and human rights.

Discussed in this episode:
Business and Human Rights by Robert McCorquodale
Communications to Saudi Aramco by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
Report on Investors, Environmental, Social and Governance Approaches and Human Rights by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights

Eve Salomon CBE

Dr Irene Pietropaoli and Eve Salomon CBE discuss the reintroduction of the Foreign Agents Law in Georgia, the protests and international critique of this law due to its human rights impacts and the impacts that this law will have on businesses in Georgia. Eve is the chair of the board of trustees at BIICL and an international expert on media law and regulation who has worked across the world to improve legal standards which safeguard human rights and democratic freedoms.

Forum Director

The Director of the Forum is Dr Irene Pietropaoli. Irene conducts research and training programmes on corporate human rights and environmental due diligence. She leads BIICL's research on human rights in global supply chains and BIICL's short course on business and human rights. Irene also leads BIICL's work on Artificial Intelligence and its links with business and human rights.

Irene holds a PhD from Middlesex University, London. Her thesis is on remedies for corporate human rights abuses in transitional justice contexts. She has a first class honours LL.M in International Human Rights Law from the Irish Centre for Human Rights and first degrees in Law from the University La Sapienza of Rome and from the University of Barcelona.

Advisory Board

Since its inception the Forum's programme has been guided on an informal basis by a small Advisory Board which currently comprises:

Dr Ivano Alogna, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Robin Brooks, Norton Rose Fulbright
Jean-Pierre Gauci, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Julianne Hughes-Jennett, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP
Daniel Leader, Leigh Day
Professor Robert McCorquodale, Brick Court Chambers
Lise Smit, Norton Rose Fulbright
Suzanne Spears, Paxus LLP

Forum Members

BHR Forum members include some of the most expert and experienced lawyers, academics and government officials and international civil servants working in the area of business and human rights. The Forum's membership is increasingly global, with current members in, France, Germany, Nigeria, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US.

The Forum has members from the following organisations:

Ardea International
Clifford Chance LLP
Council of Ethics of the Norwegian Global Pension Fund
Covington & Burling LLP
Danish Institute of Human Rights
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
Doughty Street Chambers
Environmental Law Research Institute
Hausfeld LLP
International Council for Commercial Arbitration
Laudes Foundation
Leigh Day
LH Law & Consulting
Nishimura & Asahi
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP
Paxus LLP
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
Ropes & Gray LLP
Six Pump Court
Twenty Essex
White & Case
Withers
Zelle