Background

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Across Asia, communities are confronting the growing influence of corporate actors amid deepening democratic backsliding, environmental collapse, and economic inequality. Human rights defenders, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and grassroots movements face increased risks for challenging harmful business practices, even as governments, corporations and institutions promote business and human rights frameworks.

 

Using case studies from South, Southeast and East Asia, this session will provide a platform to spotlight the efforts of land, labour and environmental rights defenders fighting against corporate harm. It will explore how collective resistance and grassroots strategies are driving change, and how the business and human rights agenda can serve not only to expose harm, but also to reimagine rights-based leadership, governance, and solidarity in the face of intersecting crises.

 

By centering voices on the frontlines, this session aims to provide a platform to celebrate the hard earned wins, learn from the challenges, and brainstorm ways of creating a more resilient, rights-based framework for inclusive and sustainable development across Asia.

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Key Objectives

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• Amplified narratives of human rights defenders: The session will spotlight the voices of human rights defenders, ensuring their experiences shape the regional BHR agenda, which is central to advancing corporate accountability.

• Strengthened solidarity for corporate accountability: Through shared analysis and dialogue, the session will foster stronger cross-country learning and collaboration among human rights defenders, networks, and allies working to hold corporations and states accountable.

• Actionable advocacy pathways to close the justice gap: Participants will identify concrete strategies for advocacy at national, regional, and international levels, anchoring progress in rights-based responses.

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Guiding Questions

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• How are land, labour, and environmental rights defenders in Asia confronting corporate harm, and what strategies have proven most effective in challenging it?

• In the face of shrinking civic space and deepening crises, how can regional solidarity strengthen defenders’ capacity to demand corporate accountability?

• What concrete, rights-based advocacy actions can bridge the justice gap and drive transformative, community-led change?

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Format

• “Case in Point” Session

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Session Partners