Webinar: Human Rights Impact Assessments
On May 28, the Investor Alliance hosted a webinar on using Human Rights Impact Assessments to inform engagements with companies on human rights.
In March 2020, a group of 176 institutional investors representing over $4.5 trillion in assets under management joined forces to call out the poor human rights due diligence performance of major multi-national companies ranked by the 2019 Corporate Human Rights Benchmark.
The first step in human rights due diligence is for companies to assess the real and potential adverse human rights impacts of their business activities and relationships. Human Rights Impact Assessments (HRIAs) are a key tool for doing so. There are, however, limited resources that comprehensively bring together theoretical and applied perspectives on the topic -- especially for an investor audience.
The goal of this webinar was to equip investors with practical information on HRIAs. Participants explored:
- The content and process standards HRIAs should follow;
- How they differ from audits and social, environmental, and health impact assessments; and
- Good practice examples and guiding questions for investors to use in engagements with companies.
The Investor Alliance had the pleasure of having with us leading experts on HRIAs from the Danish Institute of Human Rights:
- Signe Andreasen Lysgaard, Strategic Adviser, Corporate Engagement, Human Rights and Business Department.
- Tulika Bansal, Senior Adviser, Human Rights and Business Department.
Missed the briefing? View the recording below.