Business, Conflict & Human Rights Course

What is needed for businesses to operate responsibly in volatile areas? swisspeace offers a course in cooperation with Safestainable that explores this question from various angles. It discusses state of the art international standards on business and human rights and ways for companies to implement them. It sheds light on the roles and strategies of companies, governments, international organizations and civil society in promoting responsible business practices.

By joining this course, you will become familiar with relevant regulations, and initiatives at national and international levels; learn about best practices and improve your ability to practically implement and promote responsible business conduct and develop a tailor-made action plan for one of your current projects to guide future implementation. The course will also enable you to understand better the perspectives of other stakeholder groups and to enlarge your network of international practitioners and experts.

The course takes place from November 23-25, 2017 in Basel. It is designed for practitioners from business, civil society and government involved in promoting responsible business in volatile areas. It may be particularly interesting for participants attending the United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva, taking place from 27-29 November, just after the course. This course is one module of the Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) in Civilian Peacebuilding of the University of Basel and swisspeace.

Experts:
Ron Popper, formerly ABB
Stephan Suhner, Arbeitsgruppe Schweiz-Kolumbien ASK
Claude Voillat, ICRC
Sibel Gürler, swisspeace (course coordinator)
Hanspeter Heinrich, Safestainable