International conference on Business & Human Rights: Implications for Management, Knowledge Needs and Teaching

On 18-19 May 2016, Copenhagen Business School hosted an international conference on Business & Human Rights: Implications for Management, Knowledge Needs and Teaching. The conference, co-sponsored by DSEB, the Velux Chair in Corporate Sustainability and the CBS PRME Office was co-organized with The BHRight Initiative for Interdisciplinary Research and Teaching on Business and Human Rights.

At the international conference, approximately 70 academics and business practitioners, high-level keynotes, speakers and discussants from US and European institutions, including the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, PRME Working Group on Business and Human Rights and EDHEC Business School, gathered to discuss the importance of Human Rights for responsible business. The two-day conference facilitated fruitful discussions between scholars and practitioners.

Day one included keynote presentations from Dutch, French and Danish transnational businesses and financial institutions which contextualized the importance of human rights to businesses and businesses schools, with a special focus on knowledge communication to stakeholders for translation into practice. On the heels of discussing how to collaborate with businesses to address human rights, day two included keynotes which zeroed in on Business & Human Rights curriculum and research at business schools. The emergent opportunities which exist to impact change and reduce overall societal risk in the future were underlined. Breakout sessions during the two days included topics such as ‘Human Rights Due Diligence: what do employees need to know about human rights?’ which was chaired by Velux Chair of Corporate Sustainability, Professor Jeremy Moon.

Following the conference, a one-day research workshop with 15 participants from divergent social science backgrounds was sponsored by CBS’ Governing Responsible Business (GRB) World-Class research environment. The workshop enabled participants to reflect on the state of the BHR field. Additionally, a Special Issue in a Business Ethics journal will be developed based on the papers presented at the research workshop.

See the conference report report_dseb_velux_prme_bhright_conference_2016_with_grb_bhr_implications_for_mangement_knowledge_needs_and_teaching which includes a detailed list of businesses, organisations and speakers present at the conference. Access the keynote slides here.