Workshop

The Hidden Roots of Harm: Mapping Power and Vulnerability for Effective HRDD

ORGANIZED BY

CLC - Claire Lynch Consulting

15-Sep

15:45-17:15

Meeting Room H

The distribution of power and vulnerability determines which human rights risks exist, which risks get identified, and whether interventions truly address the real causes of harm. This hands-on workshop offers a practical method for building power and vulnerability mapping into risk identification and root cause analysis as a foundational step.

What practical challenge will the workshop tackle

Strengthening risk identification and root cause analysis so that HRDD processes reach beyond visible findings to the deeper, systemic causes of human rights harm.

Who should attend

Anyone involved in identifying, assessing or responding to human rights risks: business, civil society, trade unions, government and researchers. No prior experience of power analysis is needed.

Overview

Most severe human rights harms in the world of work involve exploitation or abuse of power. That makes them behavioural issues: to understand why a harm occurred, we need to understand what made that behaviour possible and rational. The answers usually sit in the power dynamics around a risk — who holds power, formally and informally; who is made vulnerable, and by what; and how commercial relationships shape both.

Mapping power and vulnerability as part of root cause analysis brings these dynamics into view, and that changes the diagnosis: instead of stopping at what is visible in the findings, the analysis can identify what is truly generating the harm. From there, interventions can be designed to address those real causes rather than the symptoms. This is the foundation of effective HRDD.

In this workshop, participants put this into practice on a realistic supply chain scenario: building a power and vulnerability map, using it to sharpen the diagnosis, and redesigning the response accordingly.

Background

Due diligence practice draws heavily on law, auditing and management systems - but rarely on psychology or behavioural science, even though the harms it addresses are fundamentally behavioural. This session is built on the facilitators' combination of both: applied business and human rights expertise, grounded in the science of why people abuse power. It draws examples from direct experience of human rights risk and impact assessment across global supply chains.

Activities

Group case work: small groups work through a realistic supply chain scenario
Mapping exercise: building a power and vulnerability map
Applying the map to sharpen root cause analysis and design the response
Facilitated discussion of findings

What participants will gain

A practical power and vulnerability mapping framework to apply in their own risk identification and root cause analysis
Hands-on experience of how power and vulnerability mapping sharpens a root cause analysis and enhances the interventions that follow

Claire Lynch

Director, CLC - Claire Lynch Consulting

A social sustainability expert, Claire Lynch holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law and a BA in International Relations, as well as certificates in Monitoring & Evaluation Practice and Applied Behavioural Science. She is also a certified SA8000 auditor and a highly experienced trainer and facilitator. Claire has worked internationally for almost two decades, with a career ranging from worker-centred field research to boardroom advisory and multi-stakeholder initiatives. She works with companies across fashion, food & beverage, and FMCG supply chains, with particular strengths in human rights risk assessment, worker engagement and social impact measurement. The distinctive feature of her practice is the integration of psychology and behavioural science into business and human rights work - recognising that due diligence only creates change when it shifts how people and organisations actually behave. This focus on effectiveness, not just compliance, shapes how she helps in-house teams turn human rights frameworks (such as the UNGPs) into systems that deliver for workers. She founded her own advisory practice in 2020 and is based between London and Dublin.

Eloise Savill

Business & Human Rights Consultant, CLC - Claire Lynch Consulting

A business and human rights specialist with a background of work and study in modern slavery, Eloise Savill holds a First Class MA (Hons) in Politics and has a particular interest in worker-driven approaches to due diligence and access to remedy. As a Business and Human Rights Consultant at Claire Lynch Consulting, Eloise delivers client work across the practice's core services — human rights risk assessments, gap analyses, HRDD frameworks, responsible purchasing programmes, supply chain research and stakeholder engagement — while tracking regulatory developments including the CSDDD, EU Forced Labour Regulation and UFLPA. She brings nearly six years of prior experience in the anti-slavery sector, most recently leading Anti-Slavery International's private sector advisory work with businesses and financial institutions, and is a regular speaker at international conferences.