The Institute will be represented by professor Henrique Napoleão Alves at the Forum's 11th Session between 28-30 November 2022
Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room of the Palace of Nations, Geneva. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
The United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights is the world's largest annual gathering on the subject, with more than 2,000 participants from government, business, community groups and civil society, law firms, investor organisations, UN bodies, national human rights institutions, trade unions, academia and the media.
This year's event will take place in Switzerland, from 28 to 30 November 2022. Facts and Norms Institute (FNI) will be among the participants. Professor Henrique Napoleão Alves will represent the Institute at the event.
The UN Forum
The UN Forum is based on a global framework which regulates the activities and busniesses and their impacts on human rights: the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
The event is an unique opportunity for dialogue and discussion on the main challenges and successful experiences regarding this framework.
This year’s Forum is focused on strenghening accountability and advancing business respect for people and the planet in the coming decade.
The Institute's work on Business and Human Rights
Facts and Norms Institute is an independent academic institution based in the Global South, with associated members from all continents. The Institute’s mission is straightforward: to promote a rational, human rights-based approach to social issues.
Since its creation, the Institute collaborated with the United Nations with 15 submissions, several of them about Business and Human Rights.
FNI's report "Roles and responsibilities of non-state actors in transitional justice processes: input to the United Nations vis-à-vis Brazil", for instance, refers to the involvement of businesses with human rights violations during the last Brazilian dictatorship, including complicity with torture, forced disappearance and extrajudicial killings.
The report “Decriminalization of homelessness and extreme poverty: input regarding Brazil, France and Poland” addresses how criminalization and other impediments were applied to informal workers in different locations, and how these measures hinder their work and favour larger market enterprises.
Additionally, both the FNI's reports on militarization of indigenous land and the rights of indigenous and rural communities to water and sanitation approaches the negative impact of agribusiness and mining and energy enterprises, among other private agents, on the rights of traditional communities.
Similarly, the report “Mercury, Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining and Human Rights: input to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights regarding Brazil, India and Peru” describes how mining businesses are harming the environment and bringing mercury poisoning to indigenous communities in the Brazilian and Peruvian Amazon.
Moreover, the Institute's report on contemporary forms of slavery and the informal economy in Brazil exposes the multiple forms of labour exploitation which are recurrent in business sectors such as agriculture, coal mining, livestock, urban construction, garment industry and textile manufacturing.
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