Overview

Increasingly, companies are seeking to collaborate with stakeholders including civil society to strengthen their human rights due diligence. Effective partnerships with civil society organisations (CSOs) can help businesses better identify, prevent, mitigate and remediate adverse human rights impacts, while building resilience across their operations and supply chains.

This session will explore what 'good' looks like when companies and civil society organisations work together across different stages of human rights due diligence. The focus of the discussion will not be whether collaboration is needed, but how businesses and civil society can build credible, sustained, and effective partnerships to identify, prevent, address, and remediate adverse human rights impacts.

Drawing on case studies and shared experiences from the region, participants will examine what makes collaboration meaningful and useful to both parties and affected rightsholders in practice. The session will build on discussions organised by The Global Business Initiative on Human Rights (GBI) in Malaysia earlier this year, with the aim of having an open and practical exchange on how companies and CSOs operating in South-East Asia can build strong, more effective, long-term partnerships.

The session will be interactive, allowing participants to exchange practical experiences, reflect on common challenges, and share lessons learned. It will be held under the Chatham House Rule to encourage open discussion.

Why it matters

Companies increasingly recognise that they cannot effectively identify and address human rights impacts alone. Building trusted partnerships with CSOs can help companies better understand the perspectives of affected rightsholders, identify and address adverse impacts, and design prevention and remediation efforts that are more credible, effective, and aligned with the needs of affected rightsholders.

Key questions

• What makes partnerships between companies and CSOs credible, trusted and effective in practice?

• How can companies and CSOs build and sustain effective partnerships across different stages of human rights due diligence?

• What are common challenges to effective collaboration, and how can they be addressed?

• How can effective partnerships between companies and CSOs translate into meaningful outcomes to people?

  
  

Who should attend?

Representatives from civil society organisations and companies of all sizes and sectors by invitation only.

What participants will gain

• Principles for building credible, trusted and effective partnerships between companies and CSOs.

• Examples of collaborative projects and initiatives that businesses and CSOs are implementing to identify, address, prevent, and remediate adverse human rights impacts.

• Practical lessons and examples of good practices drawn from regional case studies that participants can apply to strengthen collaboration in their own contexts.

  
  

Additional resources

You can find more information about GBI and The Remedy Project via the following links:

•             GBI: https://gbihr.org/ 

•             The Remedy Project: https://www.remedyproject.co/