On Wednesday, April 9, 2025, at 13:15 p.m, advocate Elise Groulx Diggs will give a keynote speech on the Evolution of Business and Human Rights after the Political Turn in the US, followed by a panel discussion by prof. Zdzisław Kędzia and advocate Mikołaj Pietrzak.
In recent years, corporate responsibility for human rights and environmental damage has expanded significantly. This has been achieved through a complex meshwork of soft and hard law norms which, although still scarce and fragmented, form a global framework (‘Galaxy of Norms’) through which the new legal environment can be navigated and interpreted by business actors. The progress achieved is now being undermined, in Europe and globally, with the change of political majorities in the EU and the recent political turn in the US. The keynote speaker and panelists will take stock of these new realities and critically address the prospects and limitations of the existing architecture to remedy the harms suffered by rights holders and affected communities, as a result of corporate activities and globalization.
Elise Groulx Diggs is international lawyer and advocate (London, Paris, Washington DC), and certified mediator (Int’l Mediation Institute (IMI) The Hague); Institute of Certification, France); Chair of Business & Human Rights Initiative (American Bar Association, Washington DC). Prof. Zdzisław Kędzia is Honorary President of the Global Campus of Human Rights (Venice), Former Chairperson of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Mikołaj Pietrzak is an advocate specialising in criminal law and human rights.
The event is hosted by the Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. The venue is: Collegium Rubrum, 2nd floor, Auditorium Hall (no. 207) Al. Niepodległości 53, Poznań.
The event is organised in cooperation with AMU Research Centre for Energy and Environmental Challenges with financial support from the National Science Center, as part of the project Corporate Human Rights Due Diligence – the Case of Implementation into National Law (ref. no. 2021/41/B/HS5/01557).
