Human Rights Due Diligence & the supply chain – in practice
Human Rights @Work invites you to a hands-on training on the UN Guiding Principle for Business and Human Rights. The training will be organized in cooperation with Enact Sustainable Strategies. Our training will focus on conducting Human Rights Due Diligence and the training in the supply chain. We will train participants on applying the principles to real situations, learning from leading company experience from different industries and how to avoid common pitfalls.
Why Human Rights Due Diligence in the supply chain?
As companies are facing pressures from investors, legislators, stakeholders and unions to align their operating practices with global norms, they are pushed to apply due diligence of complete value chains and not only their own activities.
Global norms require companies to prioritise human rights impacts based on how they pose risk to affected stakeholders and not how they affect corporate reputation, legal or financial standing. In other words, companies cannot only prioritise their supply chain management based on high-spend suppliers or high risk countries but need to understand how contractors affect local communities various tiers down. But it is not unmanageable! One just needs to think of risk from new perspectives by putting oneself into the shoes of the people on the ground. And walk a little. Our training aims to do exactly that. Help you understand how to focus on risks to people and jot business – and what to do when you return to work.
Conducting human rights due diligence in the supply chain will equip a company to manage human rights risks timely which in itself may avoid unpleasant surprises (of media scandals or NGO-exposures). A strategic approach to human rights ensures that risk management is not only about addressing risk threats but also finding and expanding on business opportunities. We offer you the opportunity to learn and to be inspired!
Our training
We offer a professional and highly practical training for a limited number of participants. The training will cover:
- The basics of human rights due diligence
- Applying due diligence to complex supply chains and in complex markets
- Sector specific workshops: practice with mapping and identifying high human rights risk in global supply chains of electronics, finance and retail
- Learning from global leaders on how to prioritise and address human rights in the supply chain
- Case exercise to address and monitor impacts in the supply chain (what to do practically once back in the office)
- An overview of legislative reporting requirements on human rights
- Latest trends on human rights and supply chains
Our approach to training is based on inspiration, interaction and practical implementation. This means that we inspire our participants, engage them through innovative interaction exercises and discussions with each other and let participants work on practical implementation through case-exercises.
Participants will develop an action plan on how to apply their newly acquired knowledge when they return to their workplace.
The training is held in English.
Due Diligence – increasingly a legal requirement
Various legislative initiatives require disclosures on human rights specific issues, such as the draft Dutch ‘Wet ZorgplichtKinderarbeid’ law, the UK Modern Slavery Act and the French draft law on corporate human rights in supply chains.
What is Human Rights Due Diligence?
A human rights due diligence is essentially a risk management process by which a company prevents, addresses and accounts for its adverse human rights impacts. The process is conducted in four steps:
- assessing human rights impacts;
- integrating findings and responding to impacts;
- tracking performance; and
- communicating about how impacts are addressed.
Who is this training relevant for?
Staff of companies with regional or global supply chains. Organisations working on CSR with an interest for human rights. The training is open to participants with some prior knowledge in human rights and participants with no prior knowledge.
About the trainers
Sandra Atler is a human rights lawyer and internationally recognized expert on business and human rights with fifteen years of experience in the field. Sandra was part of Professor John Ruggie’s team in the development of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. She was chair of the NGO-caucus in the development of ISO 26000 Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility, a core member of the international standard drafting team, and co-chaired the ad-hoc working group on human rights for five years. Today Sandra is the Director of Enact’s Human Rights & Business Practice Group. Sandra is also a Lecturer and Course Director for Business and Human Rights at the Faculty of Law at Stockholm University. Sandra has vast experience of human rights training and advising companies on human rights.
Liesbeth Unger is the founder of Human Rights@Work, a consultancy specialized in human rights and business. Liesbeth has a long and broad experience (over 20 years) with labour rights, CSR and human rights, including working for the ILO in South East Asia for five years. She works with different actors, such as companies, NGOs, government and international organisations on human rights impact assessment and due diligence offering advice and training. This gives her an in-depth understanding of different perspectives of stakeholders. She has provided and developed tailored made training on human rights and due diligence on several occasions.
Practical details
The training takes place on May 18 2017, in Amsterdam, James Wattstraat 100. As this a highly interactive and participatory training, the number of participants is limited. Costs for the training (including lunch and drinks) is 499 euros excluding VAT. If you book before April 17th, we will offer a discount of 50%. The training will be conducted in English. Additional discounts are available to not-for-profit organisations.