These courses, developed with the world-leading British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), aim to teach business professionals the concept of Human Rights Due Diligence–an increasingly intrinsic part of running an ethical and sustainable business.
What is Human Rights Due Diligence?
Human rights due diligence refers to a process by which corporations identify and act upon actual and potential human rights risks for workers in operations, supply chains, and services.
Due diligence is when a company examines the actions it is taking and their effect on others in order to protect human rights.
The concept was outlined in the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, published in 2011, which reiterated the responsibility of corporations to protect human rights.
On June 1st the EU voted in favor of a draft bill outlining mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence requirements on companies.
The bill ensures growth of corporations will in future be more closely intertwined with their policies on human welfare and sustainability than ever before. Understanding human rights due diligence will be essential for businesses to survive.
With companies increasingly under public scrutiny for how they treat employees and the environment, it is important for business leaders to understand how companies can impact human rights. That includes areas such as forced and child labor, privacy, freedom of speech, equality, discrimination, and occupational safety.
What will the ESCP courses involve?
The goal of the new ESCP courses is to provide business professionals with a thorough understanding of due diligence, how they can implement it, and how it will impact their businesses. The subjects also fall in line with the school’s objectives surrounding sustainable leadership.
The courses are taught by a range of expert lecturers, consultants, legal practitioners and human rights activists. The four classes cover: Integrating Human Rights into Business Operations, Integrating Human Rights into the Global Value Chain Transparency, Stakeholder Engagement and Remediation Integration of Multiple Legal, Industry and International Standards.
Each course runs for a total of two weeks. The next available course is Integrating Human Rights into the Global Value Chain Transparency, which starts on October 3rd, 2023.
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