2019 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

Interpretation provided in English, French and Spanish

Session organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Geneva (FES)

This session is part of the consultation process to inform the UN Working Group’s ongoing project on business and human rights in conflict-affected situations. The project seeks to clarify practical steps that States, companies and investors should take to prevent and address business-related human rights abuse in conflict and post-conflict contexts and therefore support sustainable peace, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The panel of government representatives, UN and business speakers will focus on the challenges of promoting responsible investment and responsible business in a post-conflict setting and lessons learned on the connections between conflict prevention, peacebuilding and business activity in line with international human rights standards. The speakers will share perspectives on how preventive measures to manage negative impacts of investments and business operations can play a role in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

It will include lessons from individual government and business action and reflections on steps to reinforce coherence between different efforts and ways to foster responsible business that safeguards human rights and supports peace.

Discussions will help inform key questions examined by the Working Group’s project:

• What does “enhanced” human rights and conflict-sensitive due diligence by business look like in practice? How does/should the process to identify, prevent, mitigate and account for actual and potential impacts differ from less fragile contexts?
• What is the role of business in transitional justice? What are the implications of the international business and human rights framework (the Guiding Principles) in a transitional justice and reconciliation context?
• What does responsible and sustainable investment in post-conflict and fragile contexts look like in practical terms? What actions should be taken (and avoided) by companies, private investors, public financial institutions, host and home States?

Project on business and human rights in conflict and post-conflict: https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/ConflictPostConflict.aspx

The session is part of a thematic track at the Forum that seeks to inform the project. Other sessions:

• Role of home States in promoting responsible investments in post-conflict and fragile settings, 27 November (organized by the Working Group)
• Regulating businesses in contexts of conflict and occupation: what more is needed?, 26 November (Organized by University of Essex)