10 October 2024. Our Executive Director, Bonny Ling, joined the faculty again this year for the 2024 run of the annual Business and Human Rights Masters course in Bergen, Norway. This course is a collaboration between the Institute of Human Rights and Business, Rafto Foundation for Human Rights and the University of Bergen.
Held across four weekends in the autumn/winter of 2024 by the University of Bergen’s Department of Comparative Politics, this well-established annual business and human rights masters course welcomes students from business and academia. Lectures are taught both in-person in Bergen and online, with students joining from all over the globe.
Since 2021, our Executive Director, Bonny Ling, has taught the module, “Migrant Workers and Forced Labour in Supply Chains.” Her lecture introduces the scale of the problem and the industries that are particularly vulnerable, such as seafood, as well as the complexities of protecting labour rights in our vast global value chains.
The lecture also addressed the system of migrant-borne recruitment fees that can subject migrant workers to high risks of debt bondage, which is an indicator of forced labour, along with other indicators, such as abusive living and working conditions, withholding of wage, retention of personal identification, threats and intimidation and violence. For more information on the International Labour Organization’s 11 indicators of forced labour, see our bilingual (English-Chinese) guidebook here: Understanding the International Labour Organisation Indicators of Forced Labour: Practical Guide for Taiwan’s SMEs.
The Business and Human Rights Masters course is an in-depth examination of the links between human rights violations and corporate activities. The course focuses on the importance of international standards in strengthening respect and protection of human rights, as well as what corporate human rights due diligence means in practice for businesses.
WBI works to build the human capacity to meet the opportunities for businesses to meet their corporate responsibility to respect human rights under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
The Business and Human Rights Masters Course runs at the University of Bergen every year in the fall. Take a look if you are interested to learn how companies can create the infrastructure and processes needed for the protection of human rights.
