BHRJ Blog
Welcome to the blog of the Business and Human Rights Journal, an authoritative platform for scholarly debate on all issues concerning the intersection of business and human rights in an open, critical and interdisciplinary manner.
Latest posts:
- Decolonial Pivot: How African Jurisprudence is Redefining Business and Human Rights in Technology Governance
- From Paris to the Niger Delta: Why Human Rights Due Diligence Has a Geography Problem
- Why African Perspectives Matter for Regulating Illicit Business
- Accountability for Rights Violations in Sudan’s Shadow Extractive Industries: Gold, guns, illicit trade, Militarised extraction, Accountability
- African Innovations in Business and Human Rights: Towards a Child-Centred Governance Architecture
Decolonial Pivot: How African Jurisprudence is Redefining Business and Human Rights in Technology Governance
Introduction The discourse on Business and Human Rights in Africa regarding technology governance is undergoing a major decolonial shift. Rather than simply adopting Western-inspired legal frameworks, it is moving toward more localized and context-sensitive forms of governance that challenge the epistemological foundations of global technology regulation. This shift aims to unsettle entrenched power structures and…
From Paris to the Niger Delta: Why Human Rights Due Diligence Has a Geography Problem
Introduction Global discourse on corporate accountability is witnessing a fundamental reorientation. For decades, governance of transnational corporations (TNCs) on human rights and environmental standards was relegated to voluntary initiatives and the widely used but indeterminate concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The limitations of this voluntarist approach have precipitated a decisive turn towards “hard law,”…
Why African Perspectives Matter for Regulating Illicit Business
Introduction Contemporary Business and Human Rights (BHR) frameworks are built on the premise that the primary perpetrators of profit-driven human rights abuse are legally recognised business entities operating within functioning regulatory systems. This premise underpins the dominant architecture of BHR – from the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) to regional due…
Accountability for Rights Violations in Sudan’s Shadow Extractive Industries: Gold, guns, illicit trade, Militarised extraction, Accountability
Introduction Sudan’s story is, in many ways, about what happens when a country’s most valuable resources fall into the wrong hands, and the state itself becomes the predator. For decades, military elites have shaped Sudan’s political economy, steering the country from one crisis to the next. The 2019 popular revolution offered a fleeting moment of…
African Innovations in Business and Human Rights: Towards a Child-Centred Governance Architecture
1. Introduction: The Missing Subject in BHR In today’s world, Business and Human Rights frameworks speak extensively about risk, accountability, and due diligence. Yet it is striking that a simple question remains largely unaddressed: where is the child in the African context? African Business and Human Rights (BHR) practice provides a foundation for rethinking corporate…
Business and Human Rights under the AfCFTA: How Sustainable is the Rights-Based Approach to Corruption?
Introduction International businesses are contributing to various human rights violations around the world, including violations of: the right to environment, right of indigenous peoples, right to cultural life protection including respect for the sacred sites in the process of exploration and exploitation of natural resources, right to life, right to liberty and freedom from arbitrary…
From Waste to Justice: African Grassroots Leadership in Business and Human Rights in Ethiopia
Introduction The global Business and Human Rights (BHR) agenda has gained momentum over the past two decades, driven by international frameworks such as the UN Guiding Principles 2011 and regional efforts across Africa. Yet, much of the discourse continues to focus on formal legal systems, corporate compliance, and state regulation. These models often overlook the realities…
Emerging Examples of the Integration of African Customary Business Governance Practices into Sub-national Regulation of Socio-economic rights: The Anambra State Igbo Apprenticeship Law of 2025
Introduction The flexibility within the UNGPs paved the way for contextualisation of learnings from business and human rights. This is strengthened in an African perspective by Agenda 2063 and the UN SDGs. Socio-economic human rights are crucial to African citizens and communities. There has been a push to rethink socio-economic rights using indigenous African philosophical…
African Environmental Constitutionalism as an Innovator in Business and Human Rights
Introduction African environmental constitutionalism derives from the broader concept of environmental constitutionalism, which operates on a spectrum from ‘thin’ to ‘thick’. According to Kotzé, the thin, and arguably more limited, variant entails the application of constitutional environmental rights to achieve environmental protection goals. In contrast, the ‘thick’ model integrates a wide array of essential governance…
African Solutions for African Challenges: How African Legal Frameworks are Reshaping Business and Human Rights Practice
African realities require African solutions, and the Business and Human Rights (BHR) discourse is shifting from abstract theoretical frameworks to tangible enforcement mechanisms across the continent. While global BHR discussions often emphasise Western regulatory models, distinct approaches have developed in African jurisdictions that offer valuable insights into corporate accountability, human rights and environmental protection, and…
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