Business and Human Rights
Lecurers and Experts
The MOOC is organised and managed by the Global Campus of Human Rights (GC), a unique network of more than a hundred universities around the world aiming to educate human rights defenders committed to upholding the universal values of human rights and democracy. Designed in cooperation with lecturers and experts from the 7 Regional Master’s Programmes of the GC, the MOOC offers a wealth of specialised knowledge and examples, enabling participants to benefit from rich and varied competences.
Programme Specialist - Child Rights and Business at UNICEF
Maria Pia Bianchetti
Maria Pia Bianchetti is Programme Specialist - Child Rights and Business at UNICEF. Previously, she was Senior Specialist, Child Rights and Business at the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) where she lead the work of UNICEF UK on the impact of the business sector on child rights, advocating for better legislation and business practices that respect children’s rights.
Her areas of focus include mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence, and business and child rights. Maria Pia has also been children’s rights consultant for other organizations, including Child Rights Connect and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
She graduated from the Global Campus European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratisation (EMA) in 2010.
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UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights/City University Hong Kong
Surya Deva
Professor Surya Deva was appointed in 2016 as the Asia-Pacific representative of the United Nations Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
He is an Associate Professor at the School of Law of City University of Hong Kong. He holds BA (Hons), LLB and LLM from the University of Delhi and a PhD from Sydney Law School.
Mr Deva’s primary research interests lie in Business and Human Rights, Corporate Social Responsibility, India-China Constitutional Law, and Sustainable Development.
He has published extensively in these areas, including books Human Rights Obligations of Business: Beyond the Corporate Responsibility to Respect? (co-edited with David Bilchitz) (Cambridge, 2013); and Regulating Corporate Human Rights Violations: Humanizing Business (Routledge, 2012). Mr Deva has also authored commissioned reports for the International Commission of Jurists and the Ethical Trading Initiative. He is a founding Editor-in-Chief of the Business and Human Rights Journal published by Cambridge University Press, and sits on the Editorial/Advisory Board of theNetherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, theVienna Journal on International Constitutional Law, and the International Journal on Human Rights and Business.
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President & CEO of CropLife International
Giulia Di Tommaso
Giulia joined CropLife International in September 2019, bringing with her over thirty years of experience leading reputation and sustainability strategies, communications, risk and issue management as well as legal and compliance in global executive roles.
Before joining CropLife International, Giulia was Chief Communications & Sustainability Officer at the Ferrero Group. Her international career includes more than a decade with Unilever at its London headquarters, as well as in Brussels and Africa. She has also been a senior strategic advisor to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on private sector partnership engagement.
Over the years Giulia has built a unique network within international organizations including the World Economic Forum, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Investment Climate Facility for Africa, the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, the EU-Africa Summits, the Southern Corridor of Tanzania, the UN organizations (FAO, IFAD, WFP), the World Bank, and the EU institutions. Giulia is an attorney at law and holds a master's in European law.
She is alumna of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, UK. She has led for several years the business and human rights programme at the Venice School of the Global Campus of Human Rights.
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Honorary President, Global Campus of Human Rights
Zdzisław (Dzidek) Kędzia
Dzidek Kedzia teaches International Human Rights law and Constitutional Law at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland), and is the Polish national director for the European Masters in Human Rights and Democratization (EMA).
He served as GC / EIUC President from May 2016 till December 2019. He has been the Minister-Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of Poland to the United Nations in Geneva (1991-1994) among others: General Rapporteur of the II World Conference on Human Rights (1993), Rapporteur of the 54th session of the Commission on Human Rights, Chairman-Rapporteur of the Drafting Group of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.
1994-2005 – Senior Adviser to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, director of the Activities and Programmes Branch and of the Research and Right to Development Branch. He is also member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights since 2009.
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Project Manager, Business and Human Rights Unit, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Arnold Kwesiga
Arnold is a Human Rights Advocate with over 10 years’ experience around Forced Migration issues, Gender and Sexuality, Transitional Justice and Corporate accountability.
For the last 5 years, Arnold has focused his work around the subject of business and human rights and corporate accountability—contextualizing human rights in Uganda and engaging with various stakeholders around emerging principles on the subject.
He is a Working Group member of the ESCR-Net, ACCA and the Public Interest Law Clinic and the Network for Public Interest Lawyers in Uganda. Mr. Kwesiga has previously worked with Centre for Policy Analysis, the Refugee Law Project, School of Law, Makerere University and Human Rights Watch.
Arnold holds a great passion for general human rights discourse and social justice with a bias for historically marginalized communities. Arnold holds an LLM (University of Notre Dame Du Lac), LLB (Makerere University, Uganda) and a Diploma in Law from the Law Development Centre. He has undertaken short courses on Strategic Litigation and Business and Human Rights.
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Senior Researcher and Chief Adviser, Danish Institute for Human Rights, Denmark
Claire Methven O’Brien
Claire Methven O’Brien (LLM, PhD) is a Senior Researcher and Chief Adviser, Business and Human Rights, at the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
She is also a Lecturer and Baxter Fellow at the School of Law of the University of Dundee.
Her books include the Council of Europe’s Business and Human Rights: A Handbook for Legal Practitioners (2019) and Public Procurement and Human Rights: Opportunities, Risks and Dilemmas for the State as Buyer (2019, Edward Elgar).
Claire leads the 4-year DANIDA funded interdisciplinary research programme, Realising the Sustainable Development Goals: The role of responsible business.
Claire has a PhD in Law from the European University Institute, Florence, an LLM in Public Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and other degrees from the University of Cambridge and the City University, London. She is an Honorary Lecturer at the School of Management of the University of St. Andrews.
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Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Nkatha Murungi
Dr. Nkatha Murungi is Assistant Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Pretoria.
In her role at the Centre for Human Right, she oversees the Centre’s women’s rights, disability, and children’s rights Units. Dr. Murungi is an advocate qualified to practice law in Kenya, and a lecturer and researcher in human rights with a keen focus on the rights of vulnerable groups such as children, women, and persons with disabilities, as well as sexual and reproductive health rights.
She has extensive experience in pan-African human rights programming and advocacy, civil society engagement, the African Union and its mechanisms, as well as human rights research, particularly in Africa. Her research covers a range of human rights issues including child rights, education, sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls in Africa, disability rights, and access to justice.
Dr. Murungi holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa in from the University of Pretoria, and a Doctorate in Law from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.
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Assistant Professor, Kathmandu School of Law, Nepal
Ravi Prakash Vyas
Ravi Prakash Vyas is an assistant professor of international law and human rights at Kathmandu School of Law.
He is also programme coordinator of the Asia Pacific Master’s in Human Rights and Democratisation. Previously, he worked as a consultant (proceedings) at the National Human Rights Commission of India.
He is a qualified advocate eligible to practice in the Supreme Court of India. He holds a law degree from India and a master’s in human rights and democratisation from the University of Sydney. He is managing editor of Kathmandu School of Law Review.
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South America Researcher, Amnesty International, Peru
Maria José Veramendi Villa
South America Researcher at Amnesty International. Lawyer from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia (2004) and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima, Peru.
She obtained a diploma in Women's Human Rights: Theory and Practice from the University of Chile (2006) and an LL.M (Master of Laws) in International Legal Studies with a specialization in Human Rights from the Washington College of Law, American University (2008).
Previously, she was a Senior Attorney coordinating the Human Rights and the Environment Program of the Interamerican Association for Environmental Defense (AIDA), a human rights specialist at the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR), a researcher at the Human Rights Program of the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, and a lawyer at the Instituto de Defensa Legal (Peru).
She has participated as a teacher and lecturer in courses, seminars and conferences on various human rights issues.
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Civic Freedoms & Human Rights Defenders Project Manager, Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, UK
Ana Zbona
Ana has been managing the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s work on Civic Freedoms & Human Rights Defenders since 2016.
Since November 2020, she is also working as a facilitator and global focal point of the Zero Tolerance Initiative, a global coalition working to address the root causes of violence against defenders linked to global supply chains.
Before 2016, Ana was a manager of a fair trade/community development program with indigenous communities in the Peruvian Andes with the NGO Mosqoy, as an advocacy assistant in the EU advocacy team of Human Rights Watch, and previously as a research assistant for the Slovenian Human Rights Ombudswoman, and a fellow at the EU Delegation to the UN.
Ana is a Global Campus alumna of the European Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation (2013) and holds a BA in International Development and International Relations from Saint Mary's University, Canada. She is a national of Slovenia.
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