Dear All,
We hope this email finds you well and, in case, sorry for cross-posting!
We are pleased to announce that the next Cumberland Colloquium, entitled "Measuring the Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights: Innovative Perspectives on Business and Human Rights Indicators", will take place on Monday October 7, 2013, at Cumberland Lodge, the Great Park, Windsor, Berkshire, UK.
The relevance of the topic cannot be overstated. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of corporate respect for human rights have been suggested as necessary tools to advance the business and human rights agenda. Indeed, objective and comparable indicators would allow
*
States and businesses to track progress and identify loopholes as well as best practices,
*
NGOs to monitor corporate performance, thus encouraging virtuous competition, and
*
socially responsible investors to avoid human rights risks and channel investment funds towards sustainable businesses.
Yet, measuring respect for human rights is not an easy task, and results are still meagre.
The Colloquium aims at answering fundamental normative questions (such as, what are the risks of quantifying human rights? Would quantification entail losing human rights' emancipatory potential?) as well as addressing more practical challenges (such as, which indicators can best measure a specific human rights norm? Should indicators concentrate on policy, procedure and/or performance? What is desirable and what is achievable at present?).
The Colloquium is structured as an expert meeting. The Organising Committee will lead a research team in charge of drafting a report on business and human rights indicators. The draft report will be presented at the Colloquium, where established experts will give targeted feedback and offer practical suggestions for potential improvements. The report will then be refined by the Organising Committee. The aim is to present the final version of the report at the 2013 UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights, to be held in Geneva on 2-4 December.
If you wish to be part of the research team in charge of drafting the report on business and human rights indicators (we welcome researchers from all fields and disciplinary approaches), please submit a short statement explaining why you are interested in the project (max. 3000 characters, equivalent to c.500 words) plus a short bio (max. 3000 characters) using the online form that you can find on our website (see below) by Monday 17 June 2013. Successful applicants will be notified by Monday 24 June 2013.
Further enquiries regarding general participation (the Colloqium will feature no more than 50 experts) should be directed to [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> .
For more information please visit our website http://www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk/programme/Forthcoming+Events/Business+and+Human+Rights <https://exchange2003.lse.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk/programme/Forthcoming%2BEvents/Business%2Band%2BHuman%2BRights>
Feel free to disseminate this email to any person you consider might be interested in joining the research team or participate in the event.
Sincerely,
Ann Sofie Cloots, KULeuven/Cambridge University
Charline Daelman, KULeuven
Damiano de Felice, London School of Economics and Political Science
Irene Pietropaoli, Middlesex University
Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://lse.ac.uk/emailDisclaimer
You may leave the list at any time by sending the command
SIGNOFF allstat
to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank.
|