Background

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Teaching business and human rights (BHR) at universities in Asia and the Pacific is at early stages, especially when it comes to teaching access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses. This session seeks to fill this gap by sharing experiences of using various pedagogical tools with academics, researchers, practitioners and civil society organisations (CSOs) interested in teaching BHR within or outside of universities. 

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Instead of teaching access to remedy merely as a descriptive topic, this session will introduce three pedagogical tools to make the teaching more impactful and result-oriented: (i) using real life case studies to assess how the process of securing access to remedy in business-related human rights abuses works in practice; (ii) employing clinical education to engage university students to become justice enablers for affected rightsholders; and (iii) building partnerships with lawyers, community groups and CSOs to bring practical insights to classrooms.

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While the facilitators will draw on global experiences concerning access to remedy, special attention will be given to Asian perspectives and case studies in terms of what works and what does not. Regarding clinical education, participants will be shared the model of Macquarie University’s B&HR Access to Justice Lab that brings together academics, practitioners, CSOs and students to build an ecosystem conducive to corporations respecting human rights and remedying adverse impacts on human rights abuses. Moreover, the organiser will invite an Asian CSO to share its experiences of seeking corporate accountability for human rights abuses.

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This session is organised by the Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, an organisation with global membership of individuals teaching BHR courses in different world regions. The Teaching BHR Forum promotes BHR education by fostering collaboration among teachers and building capacity through peer learning. 

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Objectives

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• To expose participants to different pedagogical tools to teach access to remedy in the BHR context within and outside of universities  

• To explain the concept of clinical education at law schools to engage students to facilitate access to remedy for corporate human rights abuses    

• To highlight the significance of partnerships between academics, CSOs and lawyers in teaching access to remedy and in turn promote corporate accountability 

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Key questions

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• What are different pedagogical tools to teach access to remedy in the BHR context? Which teaching tools work best under what circumstances? 

• How to involve students in contributing to facilitating access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses? 

• What is the relevance of academics building collaboration with lawyers, community groups and CSOs?

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Format

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The session will be conducted as a facilitated interactive workshop in which participants – academics, researchers, practitioners and CSOs – will share their experiences of teaching access to remedy within, or outside of, universities. A special focus will be on the use of case studies, employment of clinal education and building of partnerships among academics, lawyers, community groups and CSOs to teach access to remedy mechanisms and strategies.

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Session Partner