UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, addresses ICC 10th Biennial Conference on Human Rights and Business, Edinburgh, Scotland, October 2010.
Pictured: Navi Pllay, SRSG John Ruggie, Jonas Christoffersen, Director DIHR, Claire Methven O'Brien, DIHR Chair ICC Working Group Coordinator.
In October 2010, the ICC held its 10th Biennial Conference on "Business and Human Rights: What role for NHRIs?" in Edinburgh, Scotland. The ICC's Edinburgh Declaration, sets out NHRIs collective commitment to engage proactively with corporate human rights responsibility and abuses, including with reference to the new UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
NHRI delegates from over 80 countries, as well as representatives of government, labour, civil society and business met to discuss wide-ranging business and human rights issues and in particular to focus on the role and mandate of national human rights institutions in improving compliance with human rights in the corporate sector.
Key-note speakers included Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie, and Mary Robinson, Former President of Ireland.
Break-out workshops were held on the topics of child labour, forced labour and human trafficking, environment-related human rights abuses, and privatisation and public procurement.
NHRIs contributed working papers on a range of business and human rights topics.
The Conference was hosted by the Scottish Human Rights Commission, in cooperation the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC) and the Scottish Parliament.
