Business & Human Rights

Northern Ireland Business & Human Rights​

The Northern Ireland Business and Human Rights Forum was established in 2015.

It is a multi-stakeholder platform which allows Government, business, and civil society to engage on business and human rights.

Our work is directed by its members with reference to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

It is an open forum to discuss human rights issues in relation to business in Northern Ireland and share good practice.

Forum meetings are three times each year and hosted by members of the forum.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission provides the forum’s Secretariat and chaired the Forum for its first year.

The current Chair of the Forum is Stephen Abram, Associate at A&L Goodbody, while the Vice-Chair is Barbara Henry, HR Policy and Compliance Manager at Caterpillar.

The Northern Ireland Business and Human Rights Forum has produced a human rights policy statement which reflects the values of the forum. It is open for all to sign up to, but this is not a pre-requisite of joining the forum or attending forum meetings.

We submitted evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ Human Rights and Business Inquiry in July 2016.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission further submitted a detailed policy response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights’ Human Rights and Business Inquiry in July 2016.

Our Chief Commissioner, Les Allamby, recently submitted an oral statement to the 35th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on business and human rights. You can watch the joint statement written by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the Scottish Human Rights Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission here or read it here.

We have produced a Guide for Businesses in Northern Ireland on Business and Human Rights.