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International Seminar on Business and Human Rights
60^th Aniversary – Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This year’s Seminar builds on the success of the Business and Human Rights Seminars organized in London in 2003, 2004 and 2005 (www.bhrseminar.org). An international audience of almost 500 participants, including business leaders, government officials, NGO senior representatives and academia has explored the following issues in previous years:

2003: ‘Global Governance'

2004: 'Sphere of Influence'

2005: 'Complicity'

The Business and Human Rights International Seminar will take place on 4 & 5 December 2008, in Paris, France to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948, so the Paris location has been chosen as a deliberate tribute to this.

This will be a key international opportunity to review global progress on this issue over recent years and chart the developments ahead. The event will bring together business, political, civil society and trade union leaders as well as diverse learning from around the world.

The Seminar will be chaired by Mary Robinson, Honorary Chair of the Business Leaders Initiative on Human Rights and President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. Internationally renowned speakers will share their expertise at the Seminar which is based on an event which ran in London in 2003, 2004 and 2005 (www.bhrseminar.org)

For additional information please contact Charis Desinioti at info@anniversaryseminar.org or +33 158 07 77 10.

Speakers:

- Souhayr Belhassen

As a journalist and writer, Souhayr Belhassen has always wished to "give a voice to the voiceless", whether via her professional activities or in her commitment to human rights. A former political science student (in Tunis and then Paris) and a correspondent for Reuters and Jeune Afrique, in 1978 she was the first to highlight the existence of a strong Islamist component in Tunisian society, in the columns of the Jeune Afrique weekly. But her great achievement was her leadership of the campaign by the Ligue Tunisienne de Défense des Droits de l’Homme (LTDH) to save 18 young Tunisians from the gallows after they had been found guilty of taking part in the bread riots of 28 January 1984.

With Sophie Bessis, she is co-author of Bourguiba, a benchmark biography of the former Tunisian premier. Sales of her work were banned in Tunisia while Bourguiba was in power. Her next book, Femmes du Maghreb (also co-written with Sophie Bessis), describes the challenge of women's issues in the countries of the region, including her own.

Repression suffered
In 1993, Souhayr Belhassen issued a petition in support of Algerian women, in which she denounced the Tunisian regime's culpable silence with regard to its neighbour's situation, and the alibi that the Tunisians' relatively privileged situation prevented them from taking action. Following this petition, and despite the fact that it had been signed by only around 100 people, she was expelled from Tunisia; her exile was to last five years.

Back in Tunis, she founded the weekly cultural magazine 7sur7, which proved to have a short life. In 1998, after Souhayr Belhassen reported on a programme by the French public TV channel, France 2, that had displeased the Tunisian authorities, the latter took steps to block the external financing of 7sur7, which then went bankrupt.

In the course of her work as an activist, Souhayr has on several occasions been attacked by plain-clothes police officers and, like many Tunisian human rights defenders, she has been subject to constant surveillance (phone-tapping, shadowing, interception of mail, etc). At the age of 65, this indefatigable defender of fundamental rights in her country has also committed herself on many other fronts internationally, starting with women's rights. In this arena, she co-ordinates the FIDH's women's rights action group.

Commitment
Souhayr Belhassen has taken an increasingly active role in the Ligue Tunisienne des Droits de l’Homme (LTDH), the oldest human rights organisation in the Arab world. The organisation has to cope with constant intimidation by the authorities (legal harassment, beatings, threats, etc). She became the organisation's vice president in November 2000, then joined the FIDH's international office at the Quito congress in 2004. She became president of the FIDH in April 2007, at the Lisbon congress. She then decided to centre her mandate around two major themes: women's rights and international migration. During her mandate, Souhayr Belhassen has carried out many missions to support human rights defenders (Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cambodia, etc).

- Irene Khan

Irene Khan joined AI as Secretary General in August 2001. The first woman, first Asian and first Muslim to head the world's largest human rights organization, she has led AI through developments in the wake of September 11, confronting the backlash against human rights; broadening the work of the organization in areas of economic, social and cultural rights; and bringing a strong focus to the issue of women's human rights and violence against women.

Prior to joining AI she served with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, including as Deputy Director in the Department of International Protection, Chief of Mission in India, Senior Legal Advisor for Asia and Senior Executive Officer to the High Commissioner. She is a recipient of the Pilkington "Women of the Year" award (2002), the John Owens Distinguished Alumni award (University of Manchester - 2003) and the City of Sydney Peace Prize (2006).

She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Manchester and was awarded honorary doctorates by Ferris University (Japan), Staffordshire University (UK), Ghent University (Belgium), the University of London and University of Manchester. She has been voted one of the 100 Most Influential Asians in the UK. 

Seminar Detail:

Welcome Reception
3 December 2008 - 19:00- 21:00

Leaders Breakfast
4 December 2008 - Private event to host a small group of business leaders and senior individuals from government and international organisations from across the globe.

Global Challenges Of Our Time: A Business & Human Rights Framework
4 December 2008

Global Challenges Of Our Time: Practical Human Rights Responses
5 December 2008

English and French are the official Seminar languages. The simultaneous translation between the two languages will be assured during the Seminar plenary sessions

For additional information please contact Charis Desinioti at info@anniversaryseminar.org or +33 158 07 77 10.