This summer, as part of the New School’s Professional Education program, our Executive Director Maha Rafi Atal and adjunct professor Joanne Bauer will be teaching a course on business and human rights. The course will cover human rights law as it applies to corporations, corporate strategies for managing human rights impacts and ways reporters can incorporate this background into their work. The course is a two-day intensive workshop at the New School in New York on July 18th and 19th. Registration is open now on the New School website; the full course listing is below:
In recent decades, the growth and global reach of the private sector has helped to lift millions of people out of poverty. At the same time, businesses have contributed to social unrest and environmental destruction, maintained exploitative working conditions, and aided repressive governments in citizen surveillance and online censorship. This short course, designed for media professionals, explores the relevance of a human rights perspective to coverage of such corporate social responsibility issues. The course covers the historical development of human rights principles and standards relevant to corporations; an overview of current human rights law and regulatory policies; case studies that illuminate key human rights issues, including labor, the environment, and civil liberties; and corporate best practices for managing and reporting on human rights impacts. Case studies will cover a wide variety of industries, including finance, energy, mining, technology, and retail. Discussion will center on how students might approach these cases as reporters. At the close of the course, students will have a firm background in business and human rights standards and practice, and a toolkit for incorporating this knowledge into their work, both in investigative reporting and mainstream business news.
Thursday and Friday
July 18-19
9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
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