PRME Working Group on Business and Human Rights

The PRME Working Group on Business and Human Rights (PRME WGBHR) aims to complement the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights,” developed by Professor John Ruggie, and draw upon the synergies generated by the UN Global Compact (UNGC). The PRME WGBHR will fill an important gap in bringing the UNGC’s principles on human rights and Professor Ruggie’s work into management education and business thought leadership. The PRME WGBHR aims to generate multi-stakeholder collaboration on business and human rights issues among the PRME community, academia, business, civil society, and the United Nations.

The primary objective of the PRME WGBHR is to stimulate dialogue among business schools and the corporate community concerning human rights principles. Discussions about best practices will be regularly conducted in order to nurture the understanding and integration of human rights principles. Given that human rights principles and codified human rights conventions embrace a wide range of rights concerning labour, the PRME WGBHR will also address relevant labour issues associated with the concept of human rights. The PRME WGBHR also will explore training sessions that are focused on human rights topics of interest across academia and industry. Topics will be chosen based on discussions generated in roundtables and will address specific interests of the PRME community.

The working group aims to reach Deans and Associate Deans of business schools to engage them in curriculum change and research pertaining to human rights in a business context and related compliance and sustainability issues. Members will be identified for the PRME WBHR agenda in order to align management education with business practices and international policy-making. Specific components of the mandate of the PRME WGBHR will involve the following:

• To advance teaching and research on respect and support for human rights (including relevant labour principles) among business schools within the framework of the UNGC with a particular emphasis on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (Guiding Principles) and their relevance to management education;
• To educate current and future business leaders, both in business schools and in the corporate world, on evolving corporate responsibility principles and practices and to explore implementation methodologies with a focus on human rights;
• To act as a platform for collective business school and multi-stakeholder action concerning human rights principles;
• To enhance synergies and cooperation on business and human rights principles with other initiatives (while avoiding duplication) ;
• To generate resources, identify good practices, and provide recommendations that can serve PRME signatories, UNGC participants, and prospective participants among business schools and businesses about the Business and Human Rights Working Group; and
• To support regional PRME Chapters and their efforts to promote respect and support of human rights principles in the business school context.

Co-Chair: Dorothée Baumann-Pauly at dorobaumann@gmail.com, Director, Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights ,Geneva School of Economics and Management Research Director, Center for Business and Human Rights, NYU Stern School of Business

Co-Chair: Michael Posner at mposner@stern.nyu.edu, Jerome Kohlberg Professor of Ethics & Finance, Director Center for Business and Human Rights, NYU Stern School of Business

Contact from the PRME Secretariat: Luisa Murphy at murphy@unglobalcompact.org