NOVA BHRE Newsletter

FEBRUARY 2025

Laura Íñigo Álvarez will participate as a speaker of the international conference “Desafíos actuales en el campo de empresas y derechos humanos, geoeconomía y geopolítca” (Current challenges in the field of business and human rights, geoeconomics and geopolitics) directed by Carmen Márquez Carrasco and Carlos R. Fernández Liesa that Will take place at the University of Seville on 23 and 24 April 2025. More information here.

Presentation of the Guide “Business and Affected Communities” – UN Global Compact France

In response to the growing challenges of corporate impacts on communities’ rights, UN Global Compact France is introducing an essential new resource: “Business and Affected Communities: Applying a Human Rights Lens to Community Engagement for Addressing Risks Effectively.”

This guide is the result of nearly two years of work, including:

• The launch of a dedicated Taskforce in May 2023, which brought together large and medium-sized companies from various sectors.
• Over 50 interviews with community representatives, Indigenous Peoples, NGOs, businesses, and experts.
• A field mission in Chile to engage directly with communities and community liaison officers.

Written by our Research Associate Céline da Graça Pires, the guide aims at providing answers to key questions: How can businesses engage constructively with affected communities? How can they prevent, mitigate, and remedy their negative impacts? What challenges do both businesses and communities face? What practical actions should be implemented? What mistakes should be avoided? How can companies maximize positive impacts while respecting communities' needs and aspirations?

This guide draws on real-life experiences from communities, Indigenous and tribal peoples, and businesses to improve existing practices and offer actionable recommendations.

Publication date: The guide will be published in French on March 25, followed by an English translation this year.

Claire Bright was appointed as a member on the Academic Advisory Board for project on just transitions, investments, and land and sea based minerals/mining called FRONTIERS.

FRONTIERS is a five-year collaborative research project funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and led by professor Karin Buhmann.

Advancing knowledge for a just transition involving and respecting those at risk or in practice adversely affected by transition minerals mining, the FRONTIERS project explores practices in the mining industry and how institutional investors can shape that industry and its impact. Looking at land-based and potential deep-sea mining (DSM), we focus on effects and synergy of risk-based due diligence demands and Rights of Nature claims. With the aim of developing knowledge that can serve towards a just and fair transition, FRONTIERS aims at developing novel insights into good practices that may serve as inspiration or guidance for various types of actors and stakeholders (human individuals and communities, organisations, and ‘more-than-human’ stakeholders, such as the environment and nature). As part of this, we explore how due diligence and forms of engagement in diverse organizational, normative and regulatory settings can contribute to giving a voice to affected stakeholders, whether human or ‘other-than-human’.

More information about the project is available here.

Challenges of the European Energy Transition: Human Rights, Responsible Business Conduct, and Socio-Environmental Conflicts in the Global South

The NOVA BHRE participates in the research project Challenges of the European Energy Transition: Human Rights, Responsible Business Conduct, and Socio-Environmental Conflicts in the Global South (ICI023/23/000001), funded by the Catalan International Institute for Peace and coordinated by Daniel Iglesias Márquez. The project aims to contribute to a fair, inclusive, participatory, democratic, sustainable energy transition that puts human rights at the centre. In this regard, the project will conduct a mapping exercise of the policies, legislation and key actors of the European transition and the main impacts and conflicts in the Global South, as well as formulate proposals and recommendations to advance towards a fair energy transition. More information is available (in Spanish) here.

Third edition of the HeforShe Academy in collaboration with the NOVA BHRE

The HeForShe (Lisbon) Academy aims to educate young students and professionals who share the determination to become agents of change in the defense of human rights. This initiative is developed in partnership with the NOVA Knowledge Centre for Business, Human Rights and the Environment through theoretical and practical modules that will take place in April and May 2025 in Lisbon. This third edition will focus on Implementing the SDGs in a Globalized World, addressing Business and Human Rights issues such as gender equality, migration, climate litigation and forced labour, among others. More information will be soon published here.

The NOVA BHRE is participating in the EU-funded NEAR-ER Research Project

The NOVA BHRE is currently working on an EU-funded research project as part of a consortium led by KU Leuven under the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Project. This initiative aims to strengthen Africa-Europe collaboration in higher education through close interaction and dialogue, in-person and online events, academic debates, the exchange of best practices, and the dissemination of research and teaching methodologies. The NOVA BHRE's work focuses on the activities related to one of the project’s core themes: sustainability in production and global value chains.

Our visiting researcher, Anaïs Tobalagba, delivered a guest lecture at the NOVA School of Business and Economics on the 27^th of February 2025, where she explained how the business and human rights multi-stakeholder ecosystem help drive positive human rights change in the most complex and relevant supply chains of modern times in the framework of the course on Responsibility and Ethics of Business organized by Alison Holm.

As our Centre grows and its activities expand, so do our resource needs. 

Everyone involved in the NOVA BHRE is deeply committed to the mission of driving more responsible and sustainable business practices which uphold human rights, decent work and environmental standards throughout global value chains, and is driven by passion and a sense of purpose.

However, in order to maintain this level of engagement, we require support. We warmly invite new partners to join our current and previous sponsors, which include PLMJ, the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Canadian Embassy in Portugal, Instituto Marquês de Valle Flôr, FCT, and CEDIS in supporting some of the activities of the NOVA BHRE.

Any donation of any amount is welcome and greatly appreciated!

For more information our donations, please contact us at: novabhre@novalaw.unl.pt

Many thanks!

The NOVA BHRE Team