Voices - Conversations on Business and Human Rights from Around the World

‘Measuring the environmental effects of war breaks new ground’

Is it possible to rebuild Ukraine in a greener, fairer way and can this be done while the country is still immersed in war?

Two years have now passed since Russia invaded Ukraine. Tens of thousands have been killed and the fighting has caused immense damage to the environment. A groundbreaking new report has catalogued the environmental damage and outlined the essential steps needed for a green recovery. 

In this episode, IHRB’s CEO John Morrison sits down with Margot ​Wallström, who is co-chair of the group behind the report: the High-level Working Group on the Environmental Consequences of the War. Margot is also chair of IHRB's ​International ​Advisory ​Council, a ​former ​minister ​for ​foreign ​affairs in the Swedish government, and former Vice President of the European Commission.

With the cost of environmental damage estimated to be 56 billion Euros, John and Margot discuss accountability; how environmental damage might now be viewed by international courts as a war crime; and the report's call for a green rebuild of Ukraine’s infrastructure.

The report's recommendations have the health and wellbeing of the Ukrainian people at its heart. Its findings will be of paramount interest to businesses looking to invest in the recovery of Ukraine.

2024 is a record year for elections. Across the globe nearly four billion people will be heading to the polls -  half the world’s population.

In the digital age, misinformation and disinformation can spread easily, with big implications for human rights. How can social media companies protect truth and mitigate these risks?

To answer this question, IHRB’s Salil Tripathi sits down with Priyanka Motaparthy, Director of the Armed Conflict, Counterterrorism, and Human Rights Project at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, and Iain Levine, director on the human rights policy team at Meta.

In this episode our guests discuss the importance of free speech, what constitutes hate speech, the difference between misinformation and disinformation, and the serious repercussions for elections in an era of ‘fake news’, and what social media companies are doing to counter these issues.

”The UDHR is the heart and soul of the United Nations”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is clear that "all organs of society" need to respect human rights, and Eleanor Roosevelt spoke about making these rights a reality "on the farm, in the factory and in the office".  

As we mark 75 years of the UDHR, how has this foundation of human rights guided and improved the fulfilment of worker rights?

In this episode of Voices, IHRB’s CEO John Morrison sits down with Sharan Burrow, former General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, to get a trade unionist perspective on the UDHR’s legacy to improve conditions for workers, in particular for women and marginalised groups, and how collective bargaining and freedom of association are still critical.

‘We could build a future with shared prosperity’

Migration has become a highly politicised issue. Yet labour mobility is hugely important to the future health of the global economy.  

OECD countries are rapidly ageing and unfilled jobs cost the global economy 3 - 7 billion dollars every day.  At the same time, migration is one of the most powerful anti-poverty tools in the world today, with benefits from remittances - the money that migrant workers send back to their origin countries - far outstripping foreign aid.  

Voices host Deborah Sagoe and Carmen Pedraza from IHRB’s migrant workers programme, hear from Rebekah Smith, the Executive Director at Labour Mobility Partnerships.  Lamp is an organisation that believes in the power of movement to address some of the biggest issues we face in the global economy. 

Rebekah shares some startling statistics on the benefits that labour mobility brings to both origin and receiving countries.  

She and Carmen also discuss the best ways to address these issues, given the major challenges that exist in current migration systems, and where as a migration community, we can help.  

Rebekah will be appearing as the keynote speaker at The Global Forum for Responsible Recruitment.  To find out more head to: 

gfrr.org

Muetter is a project analyst at the Uyghur Transitional Justice Database (UTJD), based in Norway. The UTJD is an ongoing project that focuses on the registration of the disappeared and extrajudicially interned Uyghurs in East Turkistan. The UTJD project was founded by the Norwegian Uyghur Committee (NUC) in 2018; Muetter has served as the Head of Communications for the NUC, and as project analyst for the UTJD since 2020. Muetter’s recent work at the UTJD has included testimony collection, data gathering, and data analysis, as well as authoring books and reports about the current Uyghur Genocide. Muetter is a master's student in International Human Rights Law at the Kent Law School, the University of Kent.

Sources cited in this podcast include research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (including “Uyghurs for sale: ‘Re-education’, forced labour and surveillance beyond Xinjiang”) and the End Uyghur Forced Labour Coalition.

China has seen large-scale migration of workers from rural into urban areas. While the phenomenon of “left behind children” in rural areas has been widely reported, many children travel with their parents to cities. Given barriers to accessing public services that rest on a residency-status policy known as “hukou”, many of these migrant worker children are educated in privately-run migrant schools outside of the main public school system. A lack of investment means that these schools are often poorly constructed, with limited protection against excessive heat, cold, rain and air pollution. The students experience continuous disruption and turmoil: widespread school demolitions and closures take place as a combined result of government policy and rising land values. 

Adriano Nuvunga is a courageous anti-corruption activist from Mozambique who has played a leading role in building civil society institutions in Mozambique. At the Centre for Public Integrity, he raised many challenging questions about corruption in Mozambique. A keen critic of the extractive sector and how it affects political systems, he has been threatened personally but he continues to advocate for transparency and integrity.

Anton Mifsud-Bonnici is a Mediterranean-based independent business advocate. He specialises in ESG master strategy related to the low carbon energy transition. He is a thought leader on governance and an expert in stakeholder management and relationship building. He serves as a Commissioner overseeing the ongoing review of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights multi-stakeholder initiative. He has earlier worked with the UN and BP. He advises on peace making in Mozambique and gender fairness in Sierra Leone.

Egbert Wesselink is a historian by training and serves as Senior Advisor with PAX, the Dutch peace movement. Before joining PAX he worked at the Dutch parliament, as a teacher in a French Lycée d’État, as Human Rights officer with UNTAC, and as a Russia/Caucasus expert with the UNHCR. He has been deeply involved with civil society in Russia and continues to be so  today.

At PAX, he leads the programme on Natural Resources, Conflict and Human Rights, focussing on the impacts of business enterprises on the rights and interests of communities in general and in Sudan, South Sudan, DRC and Colombia in particular. He has been actively involved in multi-stakeholder initiatives, including the Dutch Coal Dialogue and Bettercoal, and serves on the Steering Committee of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. His report Unpaid Debt instigated a Swedish war crimes investigation into the oil company Lundin Energy AB that led to the indictment of two executive managers and is expected to go to court in 2022.

in Toronto on the sidelines of the Voluntary Principles Plenary Meeting in May, 

Mark Dickinson began his maritime career at age 16 and has been advocating for seafarers for several decades. He was instrumental in the original drafting of the Maritime Labour Convention, and leads the seafarers' representatives delegation at the STC in pushing for improvements to the convention.