Roundtable: Human Rights in Global Supply Chains: Measuring the Effectiveness of Home State Regulatory Models on Corporate Behaviour

Event Details

Since the adoption of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011, states have increasingly sought to transform these voluntary standards into binding legal obligations governing corporate human rights impacts across global supply chains. A growing body of national and regional legislation reflects this shift from soft to hard law. Leading examples include the UK Modern Slavery Act, France's Duty of Vigilance Law, Germany's Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, Norway's Transparency Act, and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).

While these laws draw inspiration from the UNGPs, they differ significantly in scope, nature of duties, enforcement mechanisms, and sanctions. Crucially, they have all been adopted by home states of major transnational corporations — jurisdictions such as the UK, Germany, and France — that play a central role in regulating corporate conduct beyond their borders. Collectively, these initiatives mark a fundamental evolution in how states seek to shape corporate responsibility for human rights throughout global value chains.

BIICL's project examines and compares the effectiveness of these home state regulatory models in influencing corporate behaviour. It explores how companies respond to different legislative approaches, how enforcement and oversight mechanisms are functioning in practice, and what this means for the protection of human rights in complex supply chains.

Our analysis covers eight jurisdictions where significant legal or policy developments are underway: the UK, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the EU, as well as the United States, where forced labour import bans already operate, and the EU's proposed counterpart regulation.

At this roundtable, our research team will present initial findings from this comparative study and invite reflections and feedback from key stakeholders — including policymakers, companies, civil society organisations, and academics — to inform the next phase of the research.

Chair

Dr Irene Pietropaoli, Senior Fellow in Business and Human Rights and Director of the Business and Human Rights Forum, BIICL

Discussions led by

• Dr Sofia Gonzalez de Aguinaga, Research Leader in Business, ESG, and Modern Slavery, BIICL
• Dr Jasmine Elliott, Research Fellow in Business and Human Rights, BIICL
• Georgia Greville, Research Fellow in Labour Exploitation and Human Rights
• Serra Zoraloglu, Consultant
  

  
Registration

This is a closed event, by invitation only. If you wish to attend, please contact Jasmine Elliott (j.elliott@biicl.org).