WEBINAR: Call for EU Human Rights Due Diligence Legislation: What Can Be Learnt from France and the Netherlands?

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, the format of this event has been changed to the webinar. Please follow this link if you would like to join.

The meeting password is: 78qhCG7hvMm.

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The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and Linklaters LLP invite you to attend the last session in a three-part series ‘Human Rights Due Diligence in Law and Practice’. This panel will consider the emerging call for EU human rights due diligence legislation through the lens of the French Duty of Vigilance Law and the Dutch Child Labour Due Diligence Law. Both legislative acts are unprecedented in creating binding obligations for companies to prevent and remedy human rights violations across their group operations. Our experts will discuss the contents of legislation; first implementation results including ongoing proceedings against Total over alleged failure to respect the French Duty of Vigilance Law in Uganda; wider campaign towards mandatory human rights due diligence in the Netherlands; and opportunities for strengthening regulatory requirements for the EU-based companies at the European level.

This is an external event and will be hosted by Linklaters LLP. The panel discussion will run from 5.30 till 7.30 pm (registration from 5 pm), followed by a drinks reception. Please let the organizers know if you have any dietary requirements. This event is open to public.

Tickets are free but should be booked in advance through Eventbrite.

An audio recording of this event is available to listen to on Soundcloud

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Antonie Fountain, VOICE Network

Antonie Fountain is Managing Director of the VOICE Network, an umbrella association of civil society organisations in the cocoa sectors. He acts as one of the key spokespersons and researchers for civil society in cocoa and has been actively advocating a sustainable cocoa sector for more than a decade. Over the past two years, he has been deeply engaged with the European Commission and with a multi-stakeholder coalition of multinationals and civil society driving for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence regulations at the European level.

Anneloes Hoff, University of Oxford

Anneloes Hoff is a DPhil candidate in Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. She specializes in business and human rights and is the founder and former convenor of the Oxford Business and Human Rights Network. Her doctoral thesis, drawing on a year of ethnographic research in Colombia, examines how a gold mining corporation deals with protest and controversy, and the role the language and practices of corporate social responsibility play in this.

Juliette Renaud, Les Amis de la Terre France

Juliette Renaud is senior campaigner on Corporate accountability for Friends of the Earth France. Since 2008, she has been working with communities affected by mining and oil companies around the world, more particularly in Argentina where she lived for several years and worked as an advisor to Nobel Peace Prize Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.

Within Friends of the Earth France, she is in charge of the advocacy and campaign activities related to corporate human rights and environmental abuses. As such, she was in the core group of organizations that fought for the adoption of the French law on duty of vigilance. She also coordinates the French coalition for the UN binding treaty. She was trained in Development Economics at Sciences Po Paris.

Elsa Savourey, Herbert Smith Freehills

Elsa Savourey is an advocate at Herbert Smith Freehills. She advises French and international clients from the private and public sector on compliance with international, domestic and sectorial business and human rights standards. This includes helping clients to identify, prevent and mitigate human rights risks in supply chains and raising her clients' awareness of the opportunities that can arise from compliance with such standards. Elsa accompanies clients in the operationalisation of responsible production in their activities and global supply chains, and in securing social licences to operate at the various stages of the international infrastructure project lifecycle. 

Elsa has built recognised expertise in relation to the French Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law – which is a significant landmark in the Business and Human Rights movement. She has published extensively (in French and English) on the Law, and advises a broad range of clients on its implementation.

Elsa is ranked in Chambers Global for Business and Human Rights Law where she is described as "a young rising star in the field who brings energy and drive to the way she handles a matter." She is also passionate about raising awareness of business and human rights amongst legal professionals and students. She is a tutor at the Sciences Po Law School Clinic and an officer of the International Bar Association's CSR Committee. She regularly publishes in leading French and international journals and has presented her work at prominent academic institutions and conferences. 

Mariëtte van Huijstee, The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)

Mariëtte van Huijstee is a senior researcher at SOMO, where she specialises in the international normative framework in the field of business and human rights, in particular the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. She examines how companies and governments implement their responsibilities and obligations to respect human rights. She presses for enforceable instruments at the international level. She also conducts research into the effectiveness of complaint mechanisms and calls for better access to compensation for victims of human rights abuses by companies. Mariette also advises and trains civil society organisations in developing different strategies to secure respect for human rights and environment in the private sector. She chairs the Responsible Business Conduct Platform, a network of Dutch civil society organisations and trade unions that advocate for strong governmental policies to induce responsible business conduct.

Mariëtte holds a PhD in Environmental Policy from Utrecht University. Her dissertation focused on how NGOs influence businesses to ensure corporate responsibility.

Moderator: Ekaterina Aristova, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights

Dr Ekaterina Aristova is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Human Rights and Practice at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Her main research interests are in the field of business and human rights. She completed PhD at the University of Cambridge on the access to justice for victims of business-related human rights violations in the UK. She also holds law degrees from the Perm State University and the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. In the last few years, Ekaterina served as a consultant on several research projects that have sought to strengthen corporate accountability for human rights violations, including for the United Nations. Prior to commencing her academic career, Ekaterina practiced corporate law specialising on all aspects of M&A transactions. She completed a training contract in White & Case’s Moscow office before spending seven years as a senior in-house lawyer at two leading Russian investment companies.