As part of our annual general meeting, we are inviting colleagues and allies to join our discussions on the latest hot topics in the rapidly evolving field of corporate accountability in Europe.

Day 1

We will kick off the events with a deep dive into the Sustainable Corporate Governance (SCG) initiative, which has the potential to address, prevent and remedy abuses such as child and forced labour, poor and unsafe working conditions, and environmental damage and climate-related impacts.

This will be followed by a conversation around parallel legislative processes: the EU deforestation and batteries directives, which both include corporate due diligence requirements.

Speakers:

• Claudia Saller (ECCJ)
• Eline Vranken (artivist)
• Filip Gregor (Frank Bold)
• Clotilde Henriot (ClientEarth)
• Nele Meyer (Amnesty International)
• Moderated by Paul de Clerck (Friends of the Earth)

Day 2

On the second day, we will explore questions around public enforcement by looking at administrative liability based on the French and German legal traditions, and criteria for national regulators under the proposed law.

We will also discuss whether/how corporate due diligence legislation and trade restrictions can be complementary, as well as what SCG could mean in terms of climate change and environmental due diligence.

As corporations often use strategies to avoid responsibility for human rights abuses and environmental damage, we will present our counter-strategies toolkit in the last workshop.

Speakers:

• Rachel Davis (Shift)
• Lucie Chatelain (Sherpa)
• Miriam Saage-Maaß (ECCHR)
• MEP Anna Cavazzini
• Prof. Surya Deva (UN WGBHR/City University of Hong Kong)
• Johanna Sydow (GermanWatch/Lieferkettengesetz)
• Maisie Biggs (SOMO)
• Moderated by Anu Kultalahti (Finnwatch) and Mark Dearn (Corporate Justice Coalition)