Day 1 | 20 September

SESSION 1:

Turning Stones to Diamonds: Pressure points to facilitate access to remedy

11:00-12:15 ICT

Background

Access to justice for business-related human rights abuses remains a major challenge in the business and human rights field. Despite explicit calls made by Principle 26 of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the guidance provided by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Accountability and Remedy Project, rights holders continue to face significant barriers to effectively access remedies for business-related human rights abuses.

At the same time, it seems that affected rights holders are not making full use of existing, albeit imperfect, grievance mechanisms. They are either not aware of the full menu on the table, lack the capacity to choose the most suitable option(s) in a given set of circumstances, or struggle to navigate through processes of different grievance mechanisms. In addition, affected individuals and communities may not be identifying or employing all available “pressure points” – which may directly or indirectly facilitate access to remedy – against corporate actors.

In short, pressure points are entry points that can trigger action on the part of business leaders to take seriously the concerns of affected rights holders and try to address these concerns in a meaningful manner. Such pressure points include, among others, civil society advocacy, including social media campaigns, shareholder resolutions, strategic litigation, complaints to National Contact Points under the OECD Guidelines, and communication to UN special procedures. These and other pressure points reflect a range of different pathways to facilitate remedy, including formal, informal, national, international, institutional and social.

Against this background, the session aims to discuss how rights holders and others can employ pressure points across Asia-Pacific to facilitate access to remedy.

Objectives

The key objectives of this session are to:

Identify available pressure points and examine to what extent these strategies have been employed successfully by rights holders;
Highlight how these pressure points can trigger action in cases where rights holders face barriers to access remedies for business-related human rights abuses;
Explore the possibility of combining certain pressure points and the simultaneous use of judicial or non-judicial grievance mechanisms.

Guiding Questions

Panelists will reflect on the following questions:

Which pressure points are at the disposal of rights holders? How can these pressure points facilitate access to remedy in the context of business-related human rights abuses?
How do these pressure points relate to, interact with or complement existing grievance mechanisms?

Day1 programme

SPEAKERS

Surya Deva

Surya Deva is a Professor and Director of the Centre for Environmental Law at Macquarie University, Australia. He served on the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (2016-2022). Deva’s primary research interests lie in business and human rights, constitutional law and sustainable development. He has published extensively in these areas, and has advised various UN bodies, governments, multinational corporations and civil society organisations on matters related to business and human rights. Deva is one of the founding Editors-in-Chief of the Business and Human Rights Journal.

Lia Mai Torres

Lia Mai Torres has more than a decade of experience in community research, education and organizing. She has been working for environmental rights and defense of environmental defenders for the past six years. She graduated BS Community Development and is a graduating student in MS Environment and Natural Resource Management at the University of the Philippines. She is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Concerns - Philippines and part of the secretariat of the Asia Pacific Network of Environment Defenders.

Sophia Areias

Sophia Areias is a programmatic Director with GBI leading on external engagement with business practitioners and other stakeholders around the world to strengthen business practice. Prior to joining GBI, Sophia spent several years in Southeast Asia, leading Transparency International Cambodia’s business integrity work and working on private sector engagement at the UNDP Regional Hub in Bangkok. Sophia has a B.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University, and a J.D from Santa Clara University School of Law. She is a U.S. qualified lawyer.

Pillkyu Hwang

Dr. Pillkyu HWANG, Esq. is Executive Director at Gonggam Human Rights Law Foundation and an international human rights law clinic lecturer at Seoul National University (SNU) Law School. The main areas of his research, advocacy and field work include international human rights, migration, refugees, business and human rights, international adoptees, alternative child care, North Korean escapees, disaster and human rights, and access to justice in general both in Korea and Asia.

He has been the Human Rights Committee coordinator of the Korean Bar Association (KBA) for 8 years. He graduated from SNU with an LL.B. and has earned his PhD in public international law at the same university. He was a visiting academic at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) of Oxford University in 2007, and a visiting fellow at the Human Rights Program of Harvard Law School in 2011-2012. For last few years, he has played a leading role, as the chair, in two major regional human rights networks in Asia, the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN) (2010-2012) and the Asian Consortium for Human Rights Based Access to Justice (Hrba2j-Asia) (2011-2017).

Harpreet Kaur

Harpreet is a Business and Human rights Specialist at UNDP. She provides technical and advisory support to governments and businesses on how to mitigate and address human rights risks and impacts in operations and supply chains in Asia. Previously, Harpreet led Genpact Centre for Women’s Leadership at Ashoka University where she steered the Women, Workplace & Rights agenda and designed cutting-edge programs that enabled women to lead with equality and dignity. At the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Harpreet highlighted corporates’ human rights impacts through her research and writing. In her early years, Harpreet led governance projects in the conflict-ridden Jammu and Kashmir in India using media and communication and supported the track-II diplomacy process. Harpreet serves as a Council Member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Human Rights.

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