

United Nations Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum, Asia-Pacific

Day 2 | 8 June
Strategies to Advance Corporate Accountability on Human Rights: Lessons learned from Asia
14:00-15:30 ICT
Co-organized by

Background
This session will explore and critically examine the various tools and strategies used by frontline civil society groups in the Asia-Pacific region to prevent harms and drive positive change in global supply chains. These include strategic human rights and environmental litigation, private sector engagement, strategic campaigns, as well as non-judicial mechanisms such as forced labour import bans and the OECD’s National Contact Points (NCPs). The structure of the session will be as follow:
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First, the panel will provide an overview of key developments across these strategies and mechanisms globally and zooming in to reflect on how these can be adapted to challenge corporate impunity and close the ‘accountability gap’ with national, regional and global companies operating in the region.
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Second, the speakers will reflect from their own experience and share experiences of how civil society groups in the region are leveraging these mechanisms to shift business behaviour and secure remedies for harms.
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Third, we will critically reflect the opportunities and challenges associated with the innovative use of these strategies to shift corporate practices and the impact on the lives of affected rights holders and communities
The panel will cover key trends and developments in transnational litigation against multinational companies in the Asia-Pacific region, the emerging legislations on forced labour import bans, implications of the US Tariff Act for frontline organisations and exploring the new frontiers of alternative accountability mechanisms and broader advocacy strategies.
Objectives
The key objectives of this session are to:
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Provide an overview of how civil society organisations can investigate, collaborate and utilise existing judicial/non-judicial mechanisms to hold corporations accountable to respecting human rights in their supply chains.
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Facilitate an open and constructive discussion on the opportunities and challenges of key corporate accountability mechanisms and their implications for frontline organisations in the Asia-Pacific region.
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Explore what success looks like in corporate accountability and how collaboration can lead to better outcomes to secure remedies for workers and communities in the process.
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Identify innovative, under-explored areas in which civil society organisations can strengthen their efforts to adopt these strategies.
Questions
Panelists will reflect on the following questions in relation to the Asia-Pacific region:
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What have been the major developments in recent years in using strategic litigation, import ban and non-judicial mechanisms to challenge corporate impunity and close the accountability gap?
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How do you define ‘success’ across these strategies? What are some of the key lessons learned from implementing the strategies?
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Where do you see opportunities to increase the impact of these strategies? What are the relevant gaps and how can these be filled?
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How should we think about the risks involved? What can be improved?
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What makes an effective collaboration/partnership in this space?
