05/07/2021
The fourth edition of the Business and Human Rights Summer School was held on line from 28th June 2021 to 2nd July 2021.
The Course, which had to be held in distance format for the second year due to the Covid-19 emergency, has gathered in an internationally-friendly environment almost 30 participants from all over the word. Countries represented included: France, Germany, Romania, Switzerland and Italy in Europe; Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico, in Latin America, Nigeria in Africa, China and Japan in Asia. Enrolled participants have had the possibility to deepen the content of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and their implementation at national and international level, ten years after their adoption, and in particular the role of both States and private actors in this respect. Lectures have been given by some of the major worldwide academic experts in this area such as: Daniel Augenstein, University of Tilburg, Nadia Bernaz, Wageningen University and Research; Claire Bright, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa; Humberto Cantù Rivera, University of Monterrey, Jernej Letnar Černič New University, Ljubljana/Kranj; Jonas Grimheden, European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA); Robert McCorquodale, University of Nottingham; Tara Van Ho, University of Essex.
The General Program has been supplemented by three in-depth fora devoted to some topical issues of the BHR Agenda. The first one, focusing on the process started by EU institutions towards a mandatory legislation on human rights due diligence for European companies, has hosted the lecture from Heidi Hautala, former Finnish Minister for International Development and State Ownership, Vice-President of the European Parliament and member of the Working Group on Responsible Business Conduct of the same European Parliament. The second one, dealing with the impact of Pandemic on BHR discourse, has focused the protection of human rights along the contemporary supply chains production system with the lectures of Andrea Shemberg, member of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights; Dominique Muller, member of the NGO Labour Behind the Label and Anil Yilmaz, University of Essex, under the coordination of Marco Fasciglione of the Institute for Research on Innovation and Services for Development of the National Research Council of Italy (Cnr-Iriss). The third one, lastly, has focused on the protection of human rights in the finance sector and on the connected responsibilities of States and corporate actors, with the lectures of Tara Van Ho, University of Essex and Ledi Bianku, Strasbourg University and former Judge of the European Court of Human Rights.
Opening addresses have been made by Hon. Min. Plen. Fabrizio Petri, President of the Italian Inter-ministerial Committee for Human Rights (CIDU), while in the closing roundtable Michael Addo, University of Notre Dame, Carmen Marquez, Carrasco, University of Seville, Anita Ramasastry, UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights; Lise Smith, British Institute of International and Comparative Law have discussed the past, the present, and the future of the business human rights Agenda.
The Summer School, the first in Italy entirely devoted to the business and human rights debate, is the result of the scientific collaborations with the Wageningen University and Research, the University of Milan, and Human Rights International Corner association. The Course is an output of the research activities performed by Marco Fasciglione, Co-director of the Summer School under the CNR project “CORE Corporate Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence and the promotion of Corporate Responsibility”.
Per informazioni:
Marco Fasciglione
Cnr-Iriss
Via G. Sanfelice n. 8 80134 Napoli
m.fasciglione@iriss.cnr.it
0812470991