Corporate Human Rights Abuse & Multi-National Supply Chain Legal Team

Mission & Operational Scope

Closing the Accountability Gap for Corporate Human Rights Violations

Global supply chains connect consumers in wealthy nations to workers in developing countries through complex networks of suppliers, subcontractors, and intermediaries that obscure accountability for labor rights violations, environmental destruction, and human rights abuses. Garment workers in Bangladesh, cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and palm oil plantation workers in Indonesia face exploitation that enables the products they produce to be sold at prices that reflect none of the true human cost. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights established a framework for corporate responsibility, but voluntary compliance has proven inadequate.

This team develops the international frameworks that establish binding corporate human rights due diligence obligations — building on the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and similar national laws to create a global standard that closes the accountability gap.

Governing Doctrine

Frameworks & Standards

• UNGPsUN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights — foundational framework establishing state duty to protect, corporate responsibility to respect, and access to remedy
• EU CSDDDEU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive — binding framework requiring large companies to identify and address human rights and environmental impacts in their supply chains
• ILO Core ConventionsILO Fundamental Conventions — international labor standards on forced labor, child labor, discrimination, and freedom of association applicable to supply chain due diligence
• UN Treaty ProcessUN Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations — process developing a binding international treaty on business and human rights