Shaping the Future of Business and Human Rights – A Collaborative Closing Conference

The con­fer­ence was fully de­signed and orga­nized by the doc­toral re­searchers of the International Doctorate Program “Business and Human Rights” them­selves. Across two days of pan­els, work­shops, and inter­active for­mats, par­tici­pants exam­ined the evolv­ing roles of busi­ness in ad­dress­ing busi­ness and hu­man rights chal­lenges through four the­matic clus­ters:

• Conflicting Environments – focusing on human rights due diligence in (1) authoritarian, (2) conflict and (3) politically-complex environments.
• Transforming Norms – exploring the adaptation and diffusion of human rights norms.
• Emerging Technologies – discussing business and human rights in the digital age.
• Climate Crisis – addressing climate litigation and justice, particularly in the Global South.

What stood out most dur­ing the con­fer­ence was the strik­ing need to foster un­der­stand­ing be­tween the Glob­al North and the Glob­al South. The di­verse com­posi­tion of par­tici­pants sparked vivid and, at times, heat­ed dis­cussions that led to in­sight­ful and thought-pro­vok­ing ques­tions. This ex­change was re­peat­edly high­light­ed in par­tici­pant feed­back as one of the most valu­able as­pects of the event—par­ticu­larly the op­por­tunity to hear and chal­lenge per­spec­tives from dif­ferent global and disci­pli­nary con­texts. 

The con­fer­ence also re­vealed how vital con­tinu­ous dia­logue across disci­plines is for ad­vanc­ing the field of busi­ness and hu­man rights. While ten­sions occa­sionally sur­faced, these mo­ments creat­ed a pro­duc­tive space for open ex­change, learn­ing, and mutu­al re­flec­tion. Par­tici­pants en­gaged deep­ly with core issues rather than avoid­ing un­com­forta­ble top­ics, lead­ing to a more can­did and au­then­tic explo­ration of ideas. Both pas­sion and ten­sion coex­isted con­struc­tively, ulti­mate­ly re­flect­ing the intel­lectu­al curi­osity and inter­disci­pli­nary en­gagement that de­fined the con­fer­ence.

Panel speakers in­clud­ed schol­ars and prac­tition­ers from around the world—among them, there were pro­fes­sors, post-docs and PhDs in the fields of law, busi­ness and eco­nom­ics, and politi­cal sci­ence. Rep­re­senta­tives from the Nubi­an Rights Fo­rum (Ken­ya), OHCHR B-Tech Pro­ject (France), and Ger­manwatch (Germany), as well as active attor­neys (In­dia), law­yers (Bra­zil), and hu­man rights activ­ists (In­dia) were en­gaged in lively dis­cussions. The event also fea­tured paper ses­sions on con­flict­ing envi­ron­ments, work­shops on cli­mate jus­tice, and World Cafés on AI ethics and con­flict­ing envi­ron­ments, cre­ating an open dia­logue to fur­ther foster col­la­bora­tions across disci­plines and sec­tors. 

In addi­tion to schol­arly pan­els, par­tici­pants en­gaged in story­tell­ing, tradi­tional Indo­nesian dance, and capoeira per­for­mances re­flect­ing the power of cul­ture and arts in ex­press­ing hu­man rights. 

Feed­back from par­tici­pants at the end of the con­fer­ence has sum­marised it well: "You really put to­gether a fan­tastic event. I meant it sin­cerely that you are one of the true hotspots for Busi­ness and Hu­man Rights in Eu­rope." An­other par­tici­pant re­marked, "This was one of the most im­pres­sive and beau­tiful con­fer­ences I've been to in a long time."

The dedicated team responsible for the conference's success comprised Milena Störmer, Stephanie Regalia, Thi Minh Chau Bui, Otgontuya Davaanyam, Eva Gengler, Xu Kang, Nelson Otieno and Eklavya Vasudev, who are all part of the International Doctorate Programme “Business and Human Rights”, as well as Anastasia Friedel, who provided support as a student assistant at the Chair of Public Law, International Law and Human Rights at FAU.

Text: The conference committee team, International Doctorate Program “Business and Human Rights”