Business and Human Rights Centre

The problem is actually a really clear

one.

Right now there are very very few

accountability mechanisms

for companies that commit or are

complicit

in egregious human rights abuses. There's

always going to be the risk of abuses

and of human rights violations, so an

important part is about engagement and

collaboration

to not only identify the problem but to

to try and make some real changes. RMIT University

has a growing number of researchers

academics phd students who are carrying

out

research and work in the area of

corporate accountability,

business ethics, corporate social

responsibility,

and business and human rights. And what

all of that is about

is improving the way that business

operates

so it's not doing harm and so that human

rights are recognized and enjoyed by the

people who

interact with that business; whether

they're communities, individuals,

workers.

And so my overarching research

question is really how do we

apply gender equality and other human

rights in the context of the growing

power of business

in society. If you look at the issues of

human trafficking or pornography

these are points in the marketplace

where profit is made

out of human rights abuse. I've been really interested in

the criminal or issues of when you

sentence people for committing a crime

what happens after that in prisons. As in

anywhere

where there's a power imbalance the

likelihood is

that some people will abuse that power.

I was doing research

on Halmahara Island which is this

tropical, beautiful paradise in Indonesia

where there's a planned nickel mine and

the communities had already

been displaced because the mine had

purchased the land.

In order to interview the people who

were against the mine

we had to take a boat to the island

and take those people off the island

during the night

secretly in order to bring them to a

safe place where we could then

talk to them and interview them freely.

My work has also

shifted towards the regulation of

companies and looking at the law

as a mechanism to improve corporate

behaviour in conflict affected areas

how can we tap the potential and the

capabilities of companies

to really play a positive role in

conflict-affected regions of the world

like Israel-Palestine.

A lot of my research has been in

understanding and demonstrating

the nature of work of home workers to

get

employers and governments and

and global corporations to acknowledge

their presence.

How do we affect corporations to

actually care about these workers in

their supply chains

and how can research and engaged

action research bring about some of the

changes

that those women want?

The Business and Human Rights Centre

is a very welcoming group of people. We

currently have a PhD scholarship. We

invite

PhD applications from people who are

interested

in carrying out research in this really

crucial area.

We're hoping that other people from

RMIT University but also from other universities

will join us as associates and be part

of this

really important research in business

and human rights.

It's really about that opportunity to

communicate and and hear someone

that is otherwise invisible.

Hi my name is Shelley Marshall and I'm

the Director of the new business of

Human Rights Center at RMIT University

it gives me great pleasure today to

bring you this very brief presentation

about our capacity to conduct applied

research in relation to the impact of

business on human rights during the COVID-19

pandemic and in the post pandemic

economic recession. Our new Business

and Human Rights Center is concerned

with the human rights impact of business

activities and how business can become a

force for good and enhance the human

rights that people that business

interacts with enjoy. We carry out

applied research critically examining

the current impact of business through

supply chains. We run industry

masterclasses, training today and

tomorrow's leaders in innovative

approaches to ethical business. We

conduct consultancies. These are

shorter term advice about policy and

practice for business.  We run design

labs using the MBA design studio to

collaboratively problem-solve with

business and come up with new and

innovative ways for addressing problems

that business has in in addressing human

rights breaches. We have six

key areas of focus which are led by six

team leaders. We focus on gender, climate

change, technology, health, peace and

conflict, and labour in supply chains.

I'd like to give you a taste of some of

the projects that we're running at the

moment which relate to COVID-19 and

human rights. One of our project

is led by Dr. Kate Grosser, myself and Sara

Todt and it's concerned with the

resilience of global supply chains.

This project is asking how garment

workers in Myanmar are navigating COVID-19

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00:02:29,349 --> 00:02:34,599

and the recession and in particular

what the consequences are for these

workers as they're losing work or their

work is being significantly diminished.

What does this tell us? What are the

lessons for business about how supply

chains can be made more resilient and

more able to cope with economic

shock and pandemics? Another project that

I'm involved with examines the impact of

COVID-19 on front frontline

workers. This project is particularly

concerned with cleaning and meat workers

and the ways that the organization of

work and the way that supply chains are

organized is creating or increasing

hazard. It is interested in finding

ways that parties throughout the supply

chain: investors, owners of buildings and

workers' unions -all the parties

involved in supply chain - can be part of

the solution. It's particularly

interested in what digital technologies

can do in terms of tracing supply chains

and providing more transparency. Leeanne

Morrison and Allan Lowe have a really

interesting project on the ontological

links between COVID-19, climate change

and capitalism. They are interested in

what the links are between this current

pandemic, climate change and the way that

we treat each other and nature and how

this can inform a less harmful post

pandemic pathway. I really encourage you

to look into the really fascinating work

that they both do. Then a final

project that I wanted to bring your

attention to, and this is just one of

many many projects that we're running in

the Center right now is led by Adam

Fletcher who's our Technology Lead in

the Center. It is concerned with

surveillance and tracking in

times of emergency. He is studying trends

in surveillance and tracking of

individuals during the COVID-19

pandemic.  As you'll be aware, much

of the surveillance that's occurring of

individuals is by business or is by

government but using apps that

are designed and run by business, so he's

asking whether surveillance measures

are compatible

with Australia's international and

domestic human rights obligations.

That should give you a taste of the kind

of work that we're doing at the Business

and Human Rights Center. We invite you to

get in touch with me or anyone in our

Center to talk about possible

collaboration or how we can help you as

business get better at mitigating and

remedying breaches of human rights when

they occur. Thank you.