Professor of Law Erika George will welcome a group of distinguished panelists on December 9, 2021 to discuss her new book, “Incorporating Rights: Taking Stock of Strategies to Advance Corporate Accountability.” To mark the tenth anniversary of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, this panel of experts will join George for a conversation on overcoming challenges and promoting change. Panelists will take stock of current and emerging efforts to advance accountability and leverage leadership.
George’s book considers market-based strategies to bring business practices into alignment with the responsibility to respect human rights. It also explores how corporate social responsibility initiatives could close a global governance gap that currently places human rights at risk—and that puts commercial actors in the position of becoming complicit in human rights abuses. George examines corporate codes of conduct, sustainability reporting, shareholder activism, and multi-stakeholder initiatives that could become the building blocks of a set of baseline standards for better business practices.
Learn more about the book panel.
Panelists include:
- Erika George, Samuel D. Thurman Professor of Law at the S.J. Quinney College of Law and director of the Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah’s College of Humanities
- Philip Alston, special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Office of the High Commissioner
- Surya Deva, professor at the City University of Hong Kong Macquarie Law School and member of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
- Bennett Freeman, principal at Bennett Freeman Associates LLC
- Ryan Gellert, chief executive officer of Patagonia Works and Patagonia, Inc.
- Fernanda Hopenhaym, co-executive director at Project on Organizing, Development, Education and Research (PODER)