The Business of Human Rights

So the SEC has had an eventful July for business and human rights related issues.

First, on July 2nd, the Commission was dealt a blow when Judge John Bates, of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, struck down the SEC’s rule requiring corporate disclosure of “payments made to foreign governments in connection with the commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals.” The rule was promulgated under Congressional discretion to prevent the Resource Curse that befalls many developing countries. The Court ruled that the Commission incorrectly found that the requisite Congressional statute was unambiguous regarding what the SEC was required to do, and as a result, vacated the rule and remanded to the SEC for further proceedings.

Nonetheless, on July 23rd, the SEC pulled out (what one commentator called ) called a “rare victory” in federal court, when Judge Robert Wilkins (also of the US District Court for DC) held that the SECcould require companies to disclose whether their products are manufactured with “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country with an abysmal human rights record that is specifically linked to the mining of gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten.

An article posted on the website for The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights addresses the tasks that still need to be completed prior to the quickly approaching target date for the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. The Millennium Development Goals were designed in 2000 to reduce poverty and hunger, promote education and gender equality, in addition to improving health and global partnership for development.

The MDG are important because they keep human rights issues at the forefront of the agenda while nonetheless promoting global development. By giving a voice to the marginalized, the MDG seek to ensure that the goals they set to achieve are the most beneficial to the individuals most in need of assistance.

According to the article, the post-2015 agenda should be framed in terms of human rights, which might require that it take precedence over economic growth. From a human rights perspective, this approach can be seen as progress. Keep an eye on the blog for more on accountability and the post-2015 human rights agenda.

You can read the full news release here.

I am pleased to announce that registration for WVU’s 2013 Business and Human Rights Conference is now open!

To register, please visit our website. The link is here. That’s also where we’ll post information as it develops, including a draft agenda , list of confirmed speakers and any other information that comes up.

Also below, as promised, is a current list of confirmed speakers/moderators. As you can see, we have participants coming from around the world and representing a wide array of stakeholders. We are also hoping to bring in representatives from the US Department of State (and other administrative agencies) as well as members of business (both small and medium businesses as well as large corporations).

Michael Addo, University of Exeter, Member of the U.N.’s Working Group on Business and Human Rights
Roger Branigan, The Global Community of Practice for Business and Human Rights
Karen Bravo, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law
George Brenkert, Georgetown Business School
Jernej Cernic, Graduate School of Government and European Studies
Angela Cornell, Cornell Law School
Jonathan Drimmer, Georgetown Law
Jim Friedberg, West Virginia University College of Law
Andrew Friedman, Think Africa Press
Patricia Illingworth, Northeastern Law 
Sarah Labowitz, NYU Business School
Lisa Laplante, University of Connecticut School of Law
Ben Love, Fresh Fields Bruckhaus Deringer, LLP
Marcia Narine, St. Thomas University School of Law
Genny Ngende, Vrije Univerisiteit Brussels 
Justine Nolan, University of New South Wales
Nwamaka Okany, Amsterdam Center for International law
Alexandra Popov, Couns. Fmr. Liberian Pres.
Ashton Phillips, George Washington Law
Anita Ramasastry, School of Law – University of Washington
Astrid Sanders, Birmingham Law School
Faith Stevelman, New York Law
Atabong Tamo, Universiteit Antwerpen
JoseVargas-Hernandez, Universidad de la Guadalajara

I am thrilled to announce that WVU’s business and human rights conference has received an official letter of support from the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. We are honored and humbled by the recognition and we hope that it will encourage broad participation from all constituents.

Next week’s blog will (I hope) mark the opening of the registration, provide a list of attendees and list a draft agenda.