Human Rights and Supply Chain Due Diligence

On May 21, AMCHAM’s Legal and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committees held the joint event Human Rights and Supply Chain Due Diligence. AMCHAM Legal Committee Co-Chair Douglas Mancill, Managing Partner, Legal Analytics and Advocacy, introduced the speakers: Jonathan Blaine, Tax Director, DFDL, and Jon Drimmer, Partner, Paul Hastings.

Jonathan Blaine began the event by discussing the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as outlined by the United Nations. He provided background on cases in the early 2000s that accused corporations of violating the basic rights of their international employees. At the time, there was no global framework to balance corporate responsibility and the duty to respect human rights. He touched on American anti-corruption laws and their natural synergy with due diligence laws. He spoke on due diligence and disclosure laws in the EU.

Jon Drimmer then provided a presentation on business and human rights legal trends. He expanded on the history that Jonathan provided and noted that there has been a huge rise in human rights laws in the past ten years. He separates the legislative trends into three pillars: disclosure requirements, mandatory due diligence, and sanctions and penalties. He spoke on the different aspects of what is required in many countries around the world. Jon then discussed what to look for in the future as these laws expand to address greater issues and the importance of ethical conduct. The event ended with a question-and-answer session where members asked about how companies can act with integrity and how audits can help with transparency issues. Presentations and a recording of the event are available on the AMCHAM Member Portal.