Past Events

Workshop: Multi-stakeholder Collaboration Under The CSDDD [14 May 2025, University of Amsterdam]

The workshop, organised by the Business & Human Rights Working Group and the Amsterdam Center for International Law, brought together academics, NGO representatives and corporate practitioners to discuss mulit-stakeholder collaboration under the CSDDD. The keynote speech was given by Prof. Humberto Cantú Rivera, Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights and Business Institute at the University of Monterrey, Mexico. The first panel, "Drafting Due Diligence Plans: Translating Legal Obligations into Practice" included speakers Mariana Rezende, Consultant Human Rights & Responsible Business at Löning, and Alena Kahle, Senior Policy & Project Coordinator at Fair Trade Advocacy Office. The second panel, presented by Suhasini Singh, Head of Supply Chain Engagement at Fair Wear Foundation, and Salah Husseini, Director for Human Rights at Business for Social Responsibility, discussed "Stakeholder Engagement in Corporate Due Diligence". The final panel, on the topic of "Designing Effective Enforcement for the CSDDD", welcomed speakers Anneke Loof-Donker, Clusterhoofd Wetgeving, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, and Nadia Cicek, Global Manager ESG legal & compliance at Arcadis.


Roundtable Discussion: Supplier Codes of Conducts: From Policy to Practice [25 February 2025, Leiden University]

The event was organised in the context of Sarah Vandenbroucke's PhD defence titled “Navigating Corporate Social Responsibility in Global Supply Chains using Codes of Conduct”. The roundtable involved NGOs, CSR consultants, and academics exploring how supplier codes of conduct are implemented in practice, and how corporate practices are evolving notably in light of the CSRD and CSDDD.

Symposium: Human Rights Reactions to Economic Laws [19 June 2024, Tilburg University]

If you are a researcher interested in the debates surrounding the boundaries between dichotomies like the public and private legal spheres, national and international law, or the corporation and the state, please consider submitting a piece and participating in the workshop organised jointly with Tilburg University.

The questions which the symposium aims to address is: How are human rights shaping economic laws and vice versa?

To see the guidelines for submissions and all other relevant information, please visit this page. The abstract submission deadline is 31 March 2024.


Symposium: Colonisation in, of and through Business and Human Rights [26 April 2023, Tilburg University]

The goal of the symposium was to reflect on the various meaning of colonisation in, of and through business and human rights. What are the multiple relations between colonialism, business and human rights? The symposium aimed at analysing this question from a 360-degree angle. Scholars from all social sciences and any country were invited to present their different perspectives on this pressing question.
Follow the above-mentioned links to read the contributions which focus on topics such as accountability of corporations, pursuing a decolonial approach for addressing human rights violations without sacrificing sustainable small businesses of the Global South or the rise and fall of the Energy Charter Treaty.

Workshop: Artificial Intelligence: The New Frontier of Business and Human Rights [7-8 September 2021, The Asser Institute]

Businesses take centre-stage in the development and use of artificial intelligence, the risks of which are increasingly addressed from a human rights perspective. The Business and Human Rights Working Group of the NNHRR and the Asser Institute invite abstract submissions for a one-day workshop focusing on the human rights responsibilities of private businesses that produce, sell and use AI technologies, as well as the responsibility of States in regulating private actors in order to safeguard human rights. Suggested topics include: human rights as a legal check on AI; the translation of business and human rights discourse into practice; embedding human rights compliance into AI products; and the use of AI tools in the framework of human rights due diligence processes. Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted to c.l.lane@rug.nl before 14 June 2021 (please see the call for papers for more information). For the full program and registration details, see here.

Panel Discussion: Climate Change as a Business and Human Rights Issue [15 October 2020, online]

On 15 October 2020, the NNHRR Business and Human Rights Working Group held an online panel discussion on the intersection between climate change and business and human rights. As climate change has only recently started to be integrated in the business and human rights debate, this event aimed to bring in the voices of scholars and practitioners who are tackling corporate and state accountability for climate change from different perspectives.
The Network blog Human Rights Here published a summary of the event here.
Annalisa Savaresi (University of Stirling): The Carbon Majors and Climate Accountability: Lessons from the Philippines
Damilola Olawuyi (Hamad Bin Khalifa University): Corporate due diligence in the era of climate change
David Birchall (University of Nottingham Business School, Ningbo): Remediating climate change through the UN Guiding Principles
Please see below for the panellists' presentation slides and a recording of the event.

Annalisa Savaresi's slides
Damilola Olawuyi's slides
David Birchall's slides

Panel Discussion: "The EU Due Diligence Initiative: Promises, Possibilities and Pitfalls" [1 July 2020]

In the context of the Toogdag 2020, the business and human rights working group hosted a panel discussing the European Commissioner for Justice's recent commitment to new legislation on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence in EU company supply chains. Working group chair Chiara Macchi (Wageningen University) introduced the topic and moderated the session. Lise Smit (British Institute of International and Comparative Law) introduced the background to the initiative, including her work with BIICL and the EU Commission report. Ekaterina Aristova (Oxford University) discussed the broader trend towards mandatory due diligence and what this might mean for the EU initiative. Nicolas Bueno (University of Zurich) provided insights into parallel national initiatives and how the pertains to the EU initiative. The panel closed with a Q&A session. Please see below for presentations with recordings from the panel.

Lise Smit's Presentation
Ekaterina Aristova's Presentation
Nicolas Bueno's Presentation
Q&A Session

NLNBHR Workshop: “The Gender Dimension of Business and Human Rights” [9 October 2019, The Asser Institute]

The Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research’s working group on business and human rights (@NLNBHR) recently held a workshop on the Gender Dimension of Business and Human Rights, under the auspices of the Asser Institute in The Hague. While it has long been recognised that corporate-related human rights harms affect men and women differently, there has been little attention paid to the gender dimensions within business and human rights scholarship and practice. This workshop sought to bring scholars together to provide an overview of the ‘state of the art’ within business and human rights in relation to gender issues and to facilitate a constructive dialogue around potential spaces for collaboration and paths forward.
A more elaborate report on the discussions and outcomes of the workshop can be found here.

FIFA and Human Rights Conference [8 May 2019, The Asser Institute]

NNHRR members Antoine Duval (Senior researcher at the Asser Institute and member of the Business and Human Rights Working Group) and Daniela Heerdt (chair of the Business and Human Rights Working Group) have organised a conference on FIFA and human rights, discussing the impacts, policies, and responsibilities FIFA has with regard to human rights. The Conference took place on May 8th at the Asser Institute in The Hague.

PhD Workshop [20 March 2019]

On March 20th, the Business and Human Rights Working Group of the NNHRR organised a workshop for PhD researchers in the business and human rights field, supported by the network. A total of four business and human rights-related PhD projects were presented and discussed by other PhDs and senior colleagues from the field. Ben Grama presented his PhD project on the privatisation of remedy and corporate-based grievance mechanisms. Casilda Zarauz discussed a chapter from her research on extraterritorial human rights protection of indigenous people in the context of the right to consultation. Daniela Heerdt presented her work on shared responsibility as part of her PhD project on the establishment of responsibility for human rights violations that occur in the context of organising and staging mega-sporting events. Finally, Philipp Wesche presented his draft article on violence against business and human rights-defenders in Columbia. All presenters received valuable feedback and comments to revise and improve their drafts to continue their PhD journey.