2013 Program

Overview

This human rights conference took place 23 months after the United Nations Human Rights Council unanimously adopted the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights on June 16, 2011.   The Guiding Principles address the intersection of the State Duty to Protect and the Corporate Responsibility to Respect human rights.   Under the Guiding Principles, to demonstrate its responsibility to respect human rights, a business should have in place (1) a policy commitment to respect human rights; (2) a human rights due diligence process to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how it addresses its human rights impacts; and (3) processes to enable the remediation of any adverse human rights impacts it causes or which it may contribute.  This is easier said than done in some instances.

Previous Atlanta human rights conferences have addressed in general terms how a business can implement respect for human rights. This conference focused on current best practice and tools across a company’s value chain, and addresses several of the difficult implementation issues that have emerged. These included human trafficking in a company’s business and supply chain, human rights due diligence and transparency in business investment in Myanmar, addressing human rights issues in the conflict minerals supply chain, and the challenges of traceability and mapping of supply chains.

In a collaborative environment with leaders in the field and companies from a range of sectors, the meeting offered a unique opportunity to better understand emerging best practice and to gain a perspective on resolving the tough respect for human rights issues. Participants came away from the conference with a better understanding of how to help their company implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and mitigate potential and actual human rights impacts.