Business and Human Rights Forum looks at Top 10 Issues for 2021

Business and Human Rights Forum looks at Top 10 Issues for 2021

Members of the Northern Ireland Business and Human Rights Forum recently looked at the Top 10 Business & Human Rights Issues for 2021, alongside the Institute for Human Rights and Business.

The Forum held its first meeting of 2021 earlier in January, and welcomed Salil Tripathi, Senior Advisor at the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), as a keynote speaker. Salil, who joined the virtual meeting from New York, talked through what IHRB has predicted will be the top human rights issues for businesses in the coming year. The Top 10 list reflects the implications of Covid-19, and includes the following:

Resilience for all: Redesigning supply chains for a pandemic-altered world

Tracking & tracing: Preventing misuse of Covid-related tech

Stranded at sea: Resolving a humanitarian crisis

Wage theft: Standing up for migrant workers in the Covid crisis

The office: Making the new workplace work for people

Forced labour: Leveraging against state-imposed human rights abuse

Climate migration: Responding to the reality of displaced communities

Race matters: Addressing discrimination at all levels

Standards fragmentation: Fighting against the divide

Transition finance: Maximising the social benefits of net-zero

Members also welcomed Harry J. Van Buren III, Ph.D. - the Barbara and David A. Koch endowed Chair in Business Ethics - who is currently a visiting academic at Queen’s University Belfast. Harry addressed the topic of ‘Human rights due diligence and the business importance of ethical commitment’.

The next meeting of the Forum will be scheduled soon. For more information, or to register to attend, please visit: www.nihrc.org/business-human-rights-forum or email: zara.porter@nihrc.org

You can find out more about the work of IHRB on their website here.