POS 301 Human Rights in Business

The course offers an overview and introduction to newly emerging regulations that regulate businesses and human rights in a globalized world. Based on concrete and relevant cases, the students will have opportunity to critically analyze and discuss the impact of human rights in the corporate sector. More particularly, the course will first focus on the general international human rights framework on the relation between business and human rights, examining legal (hard and soft-law) standards, (normative and remedial) mechanisms, challenges and developments including corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the United Nations and other regional institutions. It will then zoom in on specific themes of global pressing relevance such as corporate responsibility to protect and respect human rights, access to remedy, human rights due diligence and international soft-law standards. Finally, the course will discuss some emerging issues on BHR including climate change and BHR, gender perspectives and BHR, the role of NGOs in BHR and BHR in post-conflict processes.