To coincide with the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, ISHR has launched a special edition of the Human Rights Monitor dedicated entirely to the issue of human rights defenders and corporate accountability.

To coincide with the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, ISHR has launched a special edition of the Human Rights Monitor dedicated entirely to the issue of human rights defenders and corporate accountability.

The special edition features an impressive array of contributors, including UN experts such as the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Michel Forst and the Chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights Michael Addo, together with leading NGO experts from Human Rights Watch, the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable and the Global Initiative on ESC Rights.

The Business and Human Rights Defender Monitor also includes contributions from regional experts from the African Commission on Human & Peoples' Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and FORUM-ASIA, together with pieces from national and grassroots human rights defenders such as 2014 Martin Ennals Awardee Alejandra Ancheita of Mexico, Sukhgerel Dugersuren of Mongolia, Rafaela Danielli Nicola of Brazil and Emmanuel Umpula Nkumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

Leading corporate lawyer Rachel Nicolson of Allens Linklaters makes the business case for potecting and supporting human rights defenders, while the Ambassadors of Norway and Ecuador to the UN each set out how business and human rights initiatives being championed by their countries at the international level can contribute to the national-level protection of human rights defenders.

ISHR is committed to protecting, supporting and capacitating human rights defenders who work to promote corporate respect for human rights and accountability for violations and, in that regard, this special edition of the Monitor includes an overview of key advocacy opportunities for defenders at the UN Forum, such as a high-level event on 'Business and Human Rights Defenders: Challenges and Good Practices' on 3 December.

The special edition also looks ahead to advoocacy opportunities arisng at the UN throughout 2015, and provides an overview of key resources that defenders can use to inform their work.

ISHR is grateful to the generous support of the Open Society Foundations and the Sigrid Rausing Trust, together with the governments of Ireland and Norway, for our corporate accountability work.

All the articles in this publication are also available in Spanish here.

Photo: UN Photo / Sebastiao Barbosa