Civil Society and Corporate Accountability: Actors, Visions, Strategies

Conference

May 25, 2023, 2:15 AM to May 26, 2023, 7:30 AM EDT
May 25, 2023, 9:15 AM to May 26, 2023, 2:30 PM EEST (Romania Time)

Event Venue: National University of Political Science and Public Administration, Bucharest

This conference explores the role of national civil societies and transnational advocacy networks in the struggle to hold accountable economic actors for their involvement in massive infringement of human rights, ranging from genocide and war crimes, to torture and forced labor, and to extreme environmental degradation. It examines a variety of NGOs, epistemic communities, trade unions, and grassroot movements which seek justice across the world, and the ways their strategies are informed by different national and regional contexts and diverse ideological and professional understandings of accountability processes.

The conference aims to answer the following questions:

  1. How do different actors around the globe mobilize for corporate accountability, what repertoires do they adopt, whom do they address, and with what results?
  2. How do different local, national, regional, transnational, and/or trans-local contexts, with their diverse political, socio- economic, and cultural diversity affect strategies of corporate accountability?
  3. What is the interplay between national and transnational mobilizations of advocacy groups?

Registration

To register for the event, please write to MIRCEA VÂLCEANU at corpaccount@politice.ro by May 20, 2023 at the latest.

Conference Schedule

All times in EEST (Local Time in Romania)

Thursday, 25 May 2023
9:15 - 9:30
INTRODUCTION
RALUCA GROSESCU (SNSPA, Bucharest)
9.30 - 11.00
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY: A FRAGMENTED CAUSE

Discussant - SABINE MICHALOWSKI (University of Essex)

  • JOHN DALE (George Mason University), Corporate Accountability and the Ontological Fragmentation of Human Rights
  • ANDRU CHIOREAN (SNSPA, Bucharest), Cosmopolitics of Corporate Accountability for Major International Crimes at the UN: NGOs’ Competing Perspectives and Strategies
  • HENRY RAMMELT (SNSPA, Bucharest), Transnational Advocacy Networks Active in the field of Corporate Accountability: Visions, Divisions, Convergence
11:00 - 11:30
COFFEE BREAK
11:30 - 13:00
NORMS ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: BY WHOM AND FOR WHAT?

Discussant - RADU MARES (Lund University)

  • RUXANDRA IVAN (SNSPA, Bucharest), Interests, Institutions and Ideas in the Process of Norm Emergence in the Field of Private Military and Security Industry
  • RASUL MINJA (University of Dar es Salaam), The Influence of Norms, Actors and Contexts on Corporate Accountability: The Case of the East African Community
  • OMOGBOYEGA OYENIYI ABE (University of Huddersfield), Pre-packed vs. Home Grown Solutions of Corporate Accountability in Africa (Online)
 13:00 - 14:30
LUNCH
 14.30 - 16.00
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY AND NORTH-SOUTH RELATIONS

Discussant - IRINA VELICU (Coimbra University) (Online)

  • CAROLINE OMARI LICHUMA (University of Luxembourg), Norm Formation and Contestation in Business and Human Rights: Due Diligence Laws and North-South Relations
  • RALUCA GROSESCU (SNSPA, Bucharest), Liberal, Neo-Marxist and Indigenous Approaches to Corporate Accountability. Insights from Colombia and Guatemala
  • LEIGH PAYNE (Oxford University) & GABRIEL PEREIRA (CONICET Argentina, Online), From the International Boomerang to the Domestic Boomerang: Advocating For Corporate Accountability for Past Human Rights Abuses in Argentina
 16:00 - 16:30
 COFFEE BREAK
 16.30 - 18.30
CIVIL SOCIETIES AND LIMITS OF CIVIL LITIGATIONS

Discussant - LEIGH PAYNE (Oxford University)

  • TIMOTHY WEBSTER (Western New England University), The Transnationalization of Trial Support Groups in East Asia’s War Redress Movement
  • BADRINATH RAO (Kettering University), Demanding Corporate Accountability Through Citizens Engagement. Evidence from India
  • JUAN PABLO BOHOSLAVSKY (CONICET Argentina, (Online) & JUAN CRUZ GOÑI (University of Comahue), Negotiating Accountability For Gross Human Rights Violations. The Case of Volkswagen do Brazil
  • THOMAS BECKER (Utrecht University), Corporate Accountability, Civil Society and Strategic Litigations in Netherlands
 19.00
DINNER

 

Friday, 26 May 2023
9.30 - 11.00
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY FROM BELOW (I)

Discussant - SABINE MICHALOWSKI (University of Essex)

  • ANNIKA VAN BAAR (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Addressing Corporate Involvement in Atrocity Crimes in the Court Room
  • DANIEL MARIN LOPEZ (Harvard University), Challenging Transitional Minimalism: Corporate Accountability and ‘New Citizenships’ in the Final Report of Colombian Truth Commission
  • FERNANDO MENDIOLA GONZALO & JUAN CARLOS GARCIA FUNES (Public University of Navarre) (Online), Forced Labor in Spain under Franco’s Rule: Public Debates over Corporate Accountability in 21st Century
11.00 - 11.30
COFFEE BREAK
11.30 - 13.00
CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY FROM BELOW (II)

Discussant - CAMIL PÂRVU (Bucharest University)

  • IRINA VELICU (University of Coimbra) (Online) & STEPHANIE TRIEFUS (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Polenta and Cyanide? Addressing Juridical Activism in the Rosia Montana Movement
  • JOANNE BAUER (Columbia University), Strategies of Civil Society Advocacy Networks in Holding Corporations Responsible for their Impacts on Inequality (Online)
  • VICTORIA BASUALDO (CONICET, Argentina), State and Non-State Actors and Corporate Accountability in Argentina in Transnational Perspective
13.00 - 13.30
ROUNDTABLE / CONCLUSION
13.30 - 14.30
LUNCH

The workshop is part of the ERC-Consolidator project Transnational Advocacy Networks and Corporate Accountability for Major International Crimes. This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 101002993 — CORPACCOUNT). The project is hosted by the National University of Political Science and Public Administration, Bucharest.

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