The inaugural UN Business and Human Rights Regional Forum in Western Europe will bring together a broad range of stakeholders to strengthen business practices and connect on how businesses manage value chains across our region.

Attendees from government, business, investment, the education sector, civil society and others will gather to discuss key trends and developments in the business and human rights landscape in our region and globally.

This event delivered with the support of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights will equip attendees to navigate a turbulent landscape with confidence. This Regional Forum complements the UN Working Group’s annual global Forum in Geneva and Regional Forums convened in other parts of the world. Representatives of all interested groups across society are encouraged to participate in and contribute to the Forum.

Opening Plenary

The challenges of our times

• Climate crisis: How should companies be engaging with climate impacts? Should businesses be applying a human rights due diligence logic to climate change? Where are integrated approaches possible and where are there divergences?
• Conflict and security: What should businesses do when confronted with a climate context and how can we ensure accountability in defence and security policy? How do we avoid “state of exception” thinking which could erode important safeguards?
• AI and technology: How do we best manage the risks and seize the opportunities of technological developments, in particular AI?

Driving action

• Operationalizing the CSDDD: What is needed to ensure that the CSDDD is effective? Making sure that the core objectives of human rights due diligence are preserved in implementation of the CSDDD; the central role of stakeholder engagement, etc.
• The role of third parties in HRDD: What is the role of third parties in supportinghuman rights due diligence? What principles should be in place to ensure thatbusinesses are ensuring that participation in schemes or recourse to service providers are a support not a substitute? What principles should service providers and schemes adhere to? How should this space be regulated?
• Accountability and enforcement: What is needed to ensure accountability and what approach to enforcement? What mechanisms are available and what is needed to make them effective?

Frontiers

• Beyond UNGPs: How do we build on the gains from the UNGPs while recognizing their limitations? What alternatives are there to existing business models?
• Policy coherence: How do we ensure coherence across instruments with global reach? What is needed to ensure meaningful participation, and incorporation, of Global South perspectives?
• Accompanying measures: What is needed to support the effectiveness of EU policy and regulation on BHR? What are the EU’s external action and development cooperation modalities?

Closing Plenary