28 Nov 2022 – 30 Nov 2022

Venue: Palais des Nations & Online

Organization: United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

The UN Forum on Business and Human Rights is the world's largest annual gathering on business and human rights, where participants discuss trends and challenges in the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles and promote dialogue and cooperation. This year's Forum, taking place from 28 - 30 November 2022, will have the theme is "Rights Holders at the Centre: Strengthening Accountability to Advance Business Respect for People and Planet in the Next Decade". This page highlights environment-related activities during the Forum.

About the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

The UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, launched in 2011, is the world’s largest annual gathering on business and human rights with participants from government, business, community groups and civil society, law firms, investor organizations, UN bodies, national human rights institutions, trade unions, academia and the media.

Over three days, participants take part in panel discussions on topics that relate to the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights  (the United Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework), as well as current business-related human rights issues, including those related to the environment.

The 2022 editions of the Forum is taking place in hybrid format, at Palais des Nations, and can be followed live on UN TV. The schedule is regularly updated on Sched.

2022 Theme: Rights Holders at the Centre

The theme of the 11th UN Forum is “Rights Holders at the Centre: Strengthening Accountability to Advance Business Respect for People and Planet in the Next Decade”. The forum provides a key global platform for stakeholder dialogue on how to enhance accountability and remedy mechanisms for business-related human rights abuses, accelerate the pace of implementation by States and businesses, and incentivize the participation of other actors, in alignment with the recommendations from the UNGPs 10+ roadmap. It will also catalyse much needed conversation around reparations.

The 11th Forum provides a timely opportunity to look at implementing the Guiding Principles in the second decade of business and human rights. The focus will be on taking stock of efforts at securing accountability and access to remedy, to focus on how the implementation of the UNGPs can be accelerated from a rights holder perspective, putting people and the planet at the heart of solutions.

Business and Environmental Human Rights

Human rights and the environment are intrinsically intertwined. If we are to tackle environmental challenges without leaving anyone behind, businesses must respect both the environment and environmental rights, and ensure they are not violated in their conduct of business operations and beyond.

Human rights, businesses and environment are connected by the environmental nature of some human rights, which have been progressively more recognized and protected in the last years. This has been reinforced by the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as recognized by the Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.

Environment @ UN Forum

Various activities at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights will address environmental-related issues, including the following:

Day 1, 28 November

Day 2, 29 November

Day 3, 30 November

Highlights

Here are some Twitter highlights from different sessions.