The Symposium on Business and Human Rights (BHR) Regulatory Initiatives Outside Europe started on 10 June 2024 with this piece "Setting the Stage", authored by Caroline Omari Lichuma and Lucas Roorda, co-editors of the new Business and Human Rights Journal Blog:

The last decade has seen momentous strides in incentivizing and ensuring responsible business conduct, particularly as this relates to human rights, the environment and climate change. At the international level, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) remain the dominant framework of reference in the debate on corporate accountability... Notably, a UN Business and Human Rights treaty is currently being drafted, although its future remains uncertain... 

[A]s countries oscillate between soft norms and voluntarism on the one hand, and hard obligations and binding law on the other, the center of gravity seems to move towards the latter – arguably informed by the limited voluntary uptake of BHR norms...

The recently adopted EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) has eclipsed many other debates... This is for good reason: whether or not the CSDDD sets proper standard for sustainable and rights-compliant business governance, the EU’s central position in the global economy ensures it sets the benchmark for a significant number of corporations and transnational supply chains. Moreover, it is the first binding instrument that also covers non-EU domiciled companies [with sufficient turnover in the EU market]; simply put, it makes a big splash.

But while the Directive is undoubtedly a seismic development, it may also be good to take a step back and critically assess other, perhaps less visible developments outside of Europe... Other states are working out their own approaches to transnational business regulation and accountability, either completely independently from, or in response to the EU’s measures. It is also important to see these (legal) developments in the context of the shifting sands of the global economy...

To take stock of these developments, we have organized a blog symposium around BHR developments outside of the EU. We are very grateful to have received 12 excellent and thought-provoking contributions by a diverse group of authors, which offer insightful  and timely analyses of BHR regulatory developments (primarily) outside Europe and hopefully spur critical reflection among the BHRJ Blog readership on the dominant narratives of transnational business regulation. The contributions will be published on a daily basis...

This symposium seeks to do more than take stop of developments in BHR regulation. It also marks the launch of the new BHRJ Blog...

Other contributions to this blog symposium so far:

• Business And Human Rights In Africa in The Era of The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), 18 June 2024
• BHR Regulations in South Korea: Achievements and Limitations, 17 June 2024
• The Chinese Path for Business and Human Rights, 14 June 2024
• BHR Developments in Canada: Targeting Low Hanging Fruit, 13 June 2024
• Business and Human Rights in the Western Balkans, 12 June 2024
• A Race to the Top? Progress and pitfalls of Australia’s Modern Slavery Act, 11 June 2024
• Taiwan: Business and Human Rights on the Margins of the UN System, 10 June 2024