On 7 November 2011 the second event in the annual Mary Robinson Speaker Series on Business & Human Rights took place in New York City.  The series is hosted by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.  The event was entitled: "Business, Human Rights and the Environment: the State of Play in China."

The keynote speaker was China's pre-eminent environmentalist Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs in Beijing.  He spoke on "Environmental Challenges and China's Green Choice".  Others speaking at the event included Mary Robinson, Mayling Chan, Frances Beinecke and Andrew Nathan (affiliations below). 

Full footage of the event on You Tube (9 short videos)
(see direct links to individual segments below)

Full footage on Vimeo in one video

Ma Jun is the author of China's Water Crisis, a landmark study on the historical origins of China's present day problems with floods, water scarcity, and water pollution.  In 2006, Time magazine named him one of the world's 100 most influential people.  At the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, Ma developed the China Water Pollution Map, which tracks government-sourced pollution data and corporate violation records throughout China.  He also plays a leading role in a coalition of Chinese NGOs calling on multinational IT firms to address the fact that some of their suppliers dump toxic heavy metals into China’s water bodies, sometimes causing serious harm to people's health.

Direct links to videos for sections of the event:

• Part 1: Welcome by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre board member Mila Rosenthal (who chaired the event); remarks by Chair of the Resource Centre's US board member Ulf Karlberg, Resource Centre Director Christopher Avery and Program Director Annabel Short

• Part 2: Mayling Chan, East Asia Researcher, Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (based in Hong Kong): "Business & Human Rights: Challenges and opportunities in China, Taiwan and Singapore"

• Part 3: Introduction of Ma Jun by Mary Robinson, President of Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and President of Ireland

• Part 4: Keynote speech by Ma Jun, Director, Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, "Environmental challenges and China's green choice"

• Part 5: Observation and question by Frances Beinecke, President, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Ma Jun's response

• Part 6: Observation and question by Andrew Nathan, Professor of Political Science at Columbia University (research interests include Chinese politics, human rights), and Ma Jun's response

• Parts 7, 8 and 9: Q&A with the audience