Access to Remedy in South Asia Supply Chain Grievance Mechanisms – A Practical Perspective and Look Forward

DAY 3
22 March
12:15-13:15
GMT+5:45

SIDE SESSION

Access to Remedy in South Asia: Supply Chain Grievance Mechanisms, a Practical Perspective and Look Forward

Background

Adopted and upcoming human rights due diligence legislations require companies to install a supply chain grievance mechanism as one of the key ways to provide access to remedy to rightsholders. Implementing an effective company-based mechanism, while at the same time navigating existing structures that are already present in sourcing countries can be a real challenge for companies. Understanding the local situation is one of the necessary steps that need to be achieved in order to roll out such an initiative effectively. This ensures that the supply chain grievance mechanism is designed to be readily accessible to all rightsholders and especially vulnerable groups, following the guidance set by the UNGP effectiveness criteria. Together with a panel of experts we want to bring a practical perspective on what is needed to do so and how an inclusive and collaborative approach benefits companies, producers and complainants.

Session Description

Bringing together all relevant stakeholder perspectives, this panel will showcase how different parties and initiatives can work together to provide the best access to remedy in a resource-efficient manner. Panelists will share learnings from their own experience in South Asia, but also some key challenges they faced in implementing access to remedy across supply chains. The panel will also explore how collaborations between companies but also between mechanisms and initiatives can enable more effective remedy and avoid duplication for the rightsholders. The panel will discuss concrete examples of such ongoing collaborations, and of stakeholder consultation in South Asia with the hope of providing learnings and inspiring further collaborations in the region on access to remedy.

Session Objectives

The key objectives of this session are to:

Share learnings and perspectives from practical implementation of providing access to remedy in supply chains
Understand how collaborations can benefit all participants in grievance mechanisms
Why local stakeholder engagement and consultations are crucial in setting up effective access to remedy

Questions

Panelists will reflect on the following questions:

Which elements do organizations and companies need to consider to build an effective access to remedy approach and supply chain level grievance mechanisms in the light of existing and upcoming due diligence legislation?
How can collaboration not only between companies, but also between membership organizations and initiatives maximize the reach and impact they have towards rightsholders?
How to maximize the benefits from local stakeholder engagement and consultations to benefit supply chain grievance mechanisms
What can be learned from collaborations that are already ongoing as to what elements are needed for a successful collaboration?

Session Partner

Speakers

Surya Deva

Surya Deva is a Professor at the Macquarie Law School. He is also the Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and the Director of the B&HR Access to Lab at Macquarie University. Deva is an internationally recognised scholar in the field of business and human rights and a founding Editor-in-Chief of the Business and Human Rights Journal.

Marlene Landes

Marlene Landes works as Senior Policy Advisor at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. She is part of the unit “Sustainable transformation of global supply chains” where she is responsible for regulatory measures as the German Supply Chain Act or the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Marlene Landes studied law in Germany, United Kingdom and Malaysia and started her career as a public prosecutor.

Dheeraj

Dheeraj is a researcher associated with Praxis - Institute for Participatory Practices. His work focuses on issues of transparency and accountability in the business sphere and interface with stakeholders especially those on the margins. He had been researching disclosures, policy commitments and actions of the top listed companies in India. He was also part of the Principal Research Team of the India Responsible Business Index. He has led processes for conducting due diligence studies, focusing particularly on the informal components of the supply chain.

Laura Wauters

Laura is a Research & Development Expert at the Strategy & Innovation team at amfori, responsible for setting up supply chain due diligence tools for amfori’s members. She is currently leading amfori’s work on access to remedy and the implementation of its Supply Chain Grievance Mechanism Programme, Speak for Change.Before she joined amfori she was working with UNICEF, in specific on corporate partnerships to support their programs in the field.

DAY 3 22 March 12:15-13:15 GMT+5:45