The Best Practice Forum aims to support a nascent global community of human rights and environmental defenders across four continents, creating collaborative learning spaces so they can connect, share insights, test legal strategies, and increase their impact. This will be achieved through interactive and tailored workshops on legal skills and best practice which will enable them to respond more strategically to breaches of international standards.
This innovative event will rapidly transfer legal knowledge about legal strategies that most effectively have been used in the context of business and human rights and best legal practice across jurisdictions at a critical moment for defenders. As we enter a new phase of ecological collapse, supporting and protecting marginalised communities and the planet requires the capacity building and expertise support of the legal community even more.
What to expect?
This project has been developed in consultation with local defenders from Indonesia and various countries in Latin America and will respond directly to the needs and concerns raised by defenders. Defenders suggested that tailored legal capacity building would enable them to use and tailor environmental laws and international standards to their local context. Capacity building to equip defenders on how to report adverse corporate practices, research companies, and find and present evidence were highlighted by defenders as key topics.
The Best Practice Forum sessions will focus on the following themes:
a) A practical understanding of corporate governance and structures.
b) corporate human rights and environmental due diligence.
c) Research tools for gathering and presenting evidence.
d) Building a legal case and requesting information.
e) Using foreign courts to access justice
Aims
We hope the forum will provide defenders with the practical tools, expert legal knowledge across jurisdictions and assist with the rapid transfer of strategic skills and specialised legal support that can enable them to address the legal challenges they are facing in the protection of human rights and the environment.
This Forum will therefore act as a collaborative peer to peer space, providing opportunities for legal experts (whether by qualification or life experience) to come together to find innovative solutions, share expertise and best practice with others working on similar issues in other parts of the world, exchange effective legal strategies, and formulate new global approaches. At the heart of the Legal Empowerment project will be the interconnectivity between land and environmental rights, human rights, and climate justice, which is becoming more prominent as we edge closer to the ‘11th hour for climate change’. The Forum itself as discussed with defenders will have a particular focus on corporate human rights and environmental due diligence.
PBI UK, Lawyers Against Poverty (LAP) and Action4Justice will coordinate the development, and delivery of training sessions at the Forum to ensure legal support and guidance is tailored to local contexts and targeted addressing specific challenges and needs on the ground. Sessions will be delivered by our expert legal network and be based on digital resources such as the Action4Justice Business and Human Rights Guide, the Simmons & Simmons Toolbox for HRDs and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute’s Toolkit for Lawyers at Risk.
The exact dates for the Best Practice Forum will be confirmed shortly.