LSE - Laboratory for Advanced Research on the Global Economy - Investment & Human Rights Project

From 25-27 November 2019 the UN will host its Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights. LSE LAB  Visiting Fellows Andrea Shemberg and Andrea Saldarriaga, along with the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) are organising a panel discussion at the Forum on implementing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in investment policy. 

The session, which will be held from 9:00 – 10:30 am on 26 November at the UN Palais in Geneva, has several aims. First, the session will help those attending the Forum to understand the full spectrum of expectations described in the UNGPs regarding States and investment policy making at the regional, national and international levels.

The Fellows will offer their views based on the Guide published by the Investment & Human Rights Project at the LAB on that topic.  Second, the panel will offer a review of what some States have been doing in practical terms to achieve such implementation. And finally, the panel discussion will also look towards the future by discussing cutting-edge ideas about how States might harness international investment agreement reform to strengthen access to remedy and corporate accountability for investment-related human rights abuses.

Surya Deva of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights will moderate the panel, and Elisabeth Tuerk from the UN Conference on Trade and Development will join panelists from the LSE LAB, CCSI and SEATINI.

The UN Forum is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

LSE LAB Fellows Shemberg and Saldarriaga have designed and participated in panel discussions at every UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights since they began […]

On 26 February, I chaired a discussion at Chatham House in London on human rights impact assessments (HRIA) of trade agreements. The basis for the discussion was a report authored by Dr. Jennifer Zerk, Chatham House Associate Fellow in the International Law Programme. This important report very usefully outlines the substantial challenges of carrying out HRIAs of whole trade agreements in a manner that yields useful data that can convincingly help policymakers design trade agreements that embed respect for human rights and protect the most vulnerable members of society.

Despite the thrust of the report, which was demonstrating the weaknesses in using HRIAs for whole trade agreements, Dr. James Harrison of the University of Warwick School of Law provided several examples of successful HRIAs where they have helped policymakers understand the impacts of trade provisions. However, as he clearly pointed out, those successful assessments have all been carried out in very specific contexts regarding either one set of trade provisions or a specific government measure. Additionally, successful HRIAs have often looked at a subset of human rights issues over time.

Richard James, the Evaluation Co-ordinator for the Directorate-General for Trade of the European Commission, described the evolution in the thinking at the Commission and some ways forward to improve the actual impact of the assessments being carried out. As of yet, however, there seems to be little evidence that the results of the impact assessments being carried out at EU level have directly influenced the formulation of trade policy.

In my view, ex ante HRIAs of an entire trade agreement just cannot deliver the kinds of data that can effectively help design human rights compliant trade policy. Consider just these three challenges:

HRIAs cannot address investment parts […]

On 29 June 2017 Andrea Saldarriaga, Visiting Fellow at the Lab, spoke on a panel at the OECD Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct about how to ensure responsible infrastructure development in Iran.  Saldarriaga explained that the Government of Iran has identified infrastructure as one of the key areas in which it is seeking foreign investment. The government has identified what it calls an ‘urgent need’ to upgrade the country’s airports, rails, power generation, and water management. This is seen as critical to the country’s economic growth, and, as Saldarriaga highlighted, the imperative of infrastructure investment is magnified because infrastructure shortcomings have created bottlenecks that are thought to be driving away foreign investment in other areas.  Yet companies investing in Iran will face a number of complex challenges to responsible business.

While many are focused on sanctions, Saldarriaga highlighted risks that are receiving less attention but that are fundamental for people’s dignity and the viability of business ventures in infrastructure. These risks include, for example, the weak standards on occupational health and safety, where the rate of death from workplace injury in Iran is eight times the international average. Sixty percent of these deaths occur in the construction sector. There are also a number of risks related to the vulnerability of workers in infrastructure development in a country where 1/3 of the workforce is in the informal economy – with no social security or protection – and around 90% of the formal workforce is on temporary contracts where labour protections are weakly enforced.

Saldarriaga called on investors in infrastructure to pay special attention to the welfare of workers in their operations and those of their business partners and suppliers of products and services. She also called on mulitlateral […]