Notre Dame London Law at 50: The United Nations' Contribution to Business and Human Rights
Notre Dame London Law at 50 continues with ‘Business and Human Rights: The Contribution of the United Nations in “Making the Bond”’ by Michael K. Addo (Notre Dame Law School, UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights).
The United Nations has emerged as the most active platform for discussions and policy instruments for the conduct of business and human rights. The UN’s activities in this field are the product of decades of negotiating political and economic tensions between different stakeholders making legitimate but competing claims that draw on different understandings and expectations and often different language. The United Nations has sought to navigate the different stakeholders’ cultures and languages by developing and applying a common understanding of the issues at stake and how to reconcile any competing claims.
In this lecture Professor Michael K. Addo will assess the instruments and mechanisms employed by the United Nations to ‘bond’ the many diverse perspectives concerning the place of human rights in the conduct of business. Michael will draw on his experience as a member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights from 2011-2018.
Keep an eye on Notre Dame London Law at 50 and follow #NDLondonLaw50 for detail of more events marking this anniversary year—including monthly guest lectures and a gala in October!
About Michael K. Addo
Michael K. Addo is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame and Director of the Law Program at the London Global Gateway. Before joining Notre Dame he held appointments at the University of Exeter and over his career has established an international reputation as an expert in human rights, and a leading scholar in the field of human rights and international business policy through his research, teaching and policy engagement. He has published several books, including one of the earliest collection of essays on Human Rights Standards and the Responsibility of Transnational Corporations (Nijhoff 1998) and articles in leading scholarly journals. Addo has been a member of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights since its creation in 2011.
Originally published at international.nd.edu.