April 12 – 13, 2024

hosted by German Institute for Human Rights & Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg

The idea of embedding ethical principles in international business has been reflected by legal efforts including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, but also increasingly by national supply chain legislation. These legal frameworks have the purpose of holding enterprises accountable when violating ethical standards or when purchasing from partners that violate ethical standards. Despite these efforts, scandals concerning human rights in international supply chains still fill newspaper headlines and TV documentaries on a regular basis.

This conference brings together scholars and practitioners with different backgrounds. Twelve years after the endorsement of the UN Guiding Principles on Human Rights, one important goal of the conference is to reflect on the current state of knowledge on what tools can and should be used to better understand the impact of business on society, taking a trans-disciplinary perspective.

Complementing normative deliberations and empirical evidence, the conference aims to initiate a discussion on future research directions and new methodological approaches: How can scientific approaches be combined and extended in a transdisciplinary and complementary way? What can the business and human rights field learn from other disciplines in this respect? What challenges are posed by new technological developments? How can these also be used in research at the same time? Additional to classical business and human rights approaches, we will specifically consider recent tools and insights from the fields of behavioral economics and social psychology. Another focus will be on the application of philosophical analysis to business and human rights themes such as sector initiatives. The interdisciplinary approach should broaden the pool of measures in human rights due diligence procedures of companies as well as legislative or policy initiatives of governments.

More information & the conference program on our conference blog