Book Launch: Implementing Business and Human Rights Norms in Africa

The Bonavero Institute of Human Rights is delighted to host the launch of the book ‘Implementing Business and Human Rights Norms in Africa: Law and Policy Interventions’ written by Oyeniyi Abe. This book examines the contemporary and contentious question of the critical connections between business and human rights, and the implementation of socially responsible norms in developing countries, with particular reference to Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. The manuscript examines, clarifies, and unpacks the guiding principles of a rights-based approach to development and social inclusion. It offers an excellent exposition of regulatory capacity, institutional efficacy, and democratic legitimacy of governance institutions that shape development including a comprehensive analysis of how states are shaping business and human rights discourses locally to develop a critical understanding of identified issues by exploring the latest theories through comparative lenses.

The online event will involve a discussion between panelists and a questions-and-answers session with the audience.

Author

Oyeniyi Abe, is a Lecturer in Law at the Huddersfield Business School, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom. He is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Oyeniyi has practiced and taught human rights, corporate and commercial law in Africa, Europe, and North America. He has served as a visiting researcher at the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill University, Canada; Institute for Business Ethics, University of St Gallen, Switzerland, Canadian Institute of Resources Law, Canada, and as a Fulbright Scholar at Loyola University, Chicago, USA.

Oyeniyi serves on the Executive Council of the International Law Association, Nigerian Branch, and is a member of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law, and the Global Business and Human Rights Scholars Association. He has provided consultancy services to international organizations such as the World Bank and the African Union on various aspects of development projects and human rights observance.

Panel

Professor Damilola Olawuyi

Professor Damilola S. Olawuyi, SAN is a Professor and holder of the UNESCO Chair on Environmental Law and Sustainable Development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar. He is also chancellor’s fellow at the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES Institute), Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. In 2022, he was appointed as an Independent Expert on the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights. Prior to this, he served as an Independent Expert on the African Union’s Working Group on extractive industries, environment, and human rights violations in Africa. 

Professor Ada Ordor

Professor Ada Ordor is the director of the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA), Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town (UCT).  She is an international fellowship alumna of the American Association of University Women and editor of the Journal of Comparative Law in Africa.  Having worked in various sectors since 1990, including legal practice, civil society and academia, her published research explores issues of law and development from various perspectives that demonstrate the interconnectedness of development processes and the laws that govern them.  At the University of Cape Town, she supervises postgraduate research, convenes the LLM programme in Comparative Business Law in Africa, as part of which she teaches the course Law, Regional Integration and Development in Africa. 

Professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen

Professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen is a leading expert on children's rights in Africa. She served as a member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights of the Child from 2011- 2016, leading missions to South Sudan, Tanzania and northern Uganda, amongst others. She has worked on child law reform in many African countries, including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Kenya and Ethiopia. She has published more than 150 articles and book chapters, and is currently working on a project on children's rights and business in Africa.

Professor Sâ Benjamin Traoré

Sâ Benjamin Traoré is an Assistant Professor of Law at the Faculty of Governance, Economics and Social Sciences of the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat (Morocco). He holds a PhD from the University of Neuchâtel and an LLM from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. He previously worked as the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability project manager at the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria. His academic works cover various subjects ranging from Public international law, the law of international organizations, the use of force in international law, human rights, international humanitarian law and Business and human rights. He is the author of a book on The Interpretation of United Nations Security Council Resolutions (Helbing, Basel, 2020).

Brigadier Siachitema

Mr Brigadier Siachitema is a lawyer with 13 years of experience promoting and advancing human rights, the rule of law and access to justice through strategic litigation, advocacy and capacity strengthening.  He is currently a consultant for the  Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), where he leads the Social-Economic Rights Cluster. Mr Brigadier holds an LL. B degree from the University of Zambia, an LL.M degree in Extractive Industries Law in Africa from the University of Pretoria, and an LL.M degree in International Business and Economic Law from Georgetown University Law Center. He is also a Commonwealth Scholar leading for the Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford.

Benafsha Delgado

Benafsha Delgado joined the UN Global Compact Network UK in 2015 and is the Senior Programme Manager where she leads on their Business & Human Rights workstream. She is responsible for managing the Network’s programming on modern slavery and global supply chains, including their Modern Slavery and Child Labour Working groups. Benafsha has extensive experience working with the private sector on child labour in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia. Previously, Benafsha worked at Aviva plc, where she was involved in drafting their modern slavery strategy. She was also employed by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets Authority and the Prince of Wales' International Business Leaders' Forum (IBLF) where she was Programme Coordinator of the Business Standards team and worked as a researcher and assisted the development of the Guide to Human Rights Impact Assessment and Management tool. Benafsha has an MA in Human Rights from University College London and a BA in American Studies from Kings College London.