Access to Remedy: Enabling Remedy Through Back-up Grievance Mechanisms

The Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) and the Initiative for Global Solidarity (IGS), implemented by the German Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), will be organising a series of webinars in 2023 on access to remedy.

Access to remedy is an essential part of human rights and environmental due diligence process of a company. When a company’s operations have caused or contributed to human rights abuses, international frameworks require companies to provide for or contribute to remedy. In practice, however, effective remediation can be challenging, as modern supply chains are complex, multi-tiered and span all over the world.

Companies, regardless of their size, nowadays struggle with similar questions in this field. For example, some of them may be: To which degree should we intervene when our supply chain has caused a human rights violation? What are the first steps to take if we want to remedy harm and set up an operational level grievance mechanism? What are the must-haves when it comes to remediating harm in supply chains? How to live up to the responsibility to protect workers’ rights when we do not have enough leverage on our suppliers? How to collaborate with others on enabling remedy if we feel they are not open to cooperation? How to convince the board and senior management of the need to be transparent about our negative impacts? How do the collective grievance mechanisms work and how can they help us?

These and all the other questions will be answered during the 4-part webinar series organised by the SER and GIZ, where different stakeholders will share their expertise and practical recommendations.

You are cordially invited to take part in the first webinar in these series - “Access to remedy: Enabling remedy through back-up grievance mechanisms” which will take place online on Tuesday, 14 March 2023 at 10:00 – 11:30 am CET.

Who it is for:
• This webinar is aimed at ESG and sustainability managers, directors and top management of companies, either large or SMEs;  
• And for anyone who wants to know more about how to successfully enable remedy through grievance mechanisms.

During this webinar you will learn:
• What remedy means within the framework of Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence and its relevance;
• What are international legal expectations of companies regarding remediation for the negative harm they cause / contribute to or are linked to based on international frameworks;  
• What (upcoming) local and regional due diligence laws (e.g. Germany, EU and etc.) require from companies on remediation and grievance structures and what it means in practice for a buying companies to comply with these provisions;  
• How remediation can be embedded in company management and processes and how the top management can be persuaded to give attention to this topic;
• How sharing responsibility with the own supply chain in the area of grievance mechanisms and remedy can increase effectiveness and efficiency.

Program and list of speakers will be shared shortly.