Just beginning to take shape, the field of business and human rights (BHR) promises to become an important element of teaching and research at leading business schools. As part of the effort to accelerate the evolution of this area, the Global Network of Business Schools was founded in 2017 by the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University’s Stern School of Business, the Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, and the Geneva School of Economics and Management at the University of Geneva. This network now comprises 39 business schools. More information about the network’s annual meeting and activities can be found here: https://bhr.stern.nyu.edu/global-busi-ness-school-network. On a parallel track, the larger Global Business School Network (GBSN), which connects more than 100 leading business schools from 50 countries to improve access to quality and locally relevant management education for the developing world, is an essential partner in this effort. Many of the schools in the GBSN orbit are located in the global South, where many human rights issues are playing out in real time. Adding human rights to the business school curriculum provides an exciting opportunity for new forms of collaboration among these schools and their counterparts in Europe and North America. GBSN is well-positioned to serve as a resource and community for schools implementing recommendations in this toolkit
About this tool kit edited by Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, Michael Posner and Dan LeClair: Representatives from a number of business school, both professors and administrators, have worked jointly to assemble this tool kit. It includes information and resources explaining the increasing relevance of human rights in a business school context and provides resources that can be helpful to those in other business schools who wish to become involved. Specifically, this document provides an overview of readily available teaching resources, research outlets, and various ways of institutionalizing human rights at business schools. It includes contributions from representatives of schools that are already including human rights in classes, public programs, and research. These testimonies highlight some of the key building blocks for successfully integrating human rights into the business curriculum. The appendix provides a list of contacts at key business schools that stand ready to offer you further advice on how to initiate a human rights program at schools.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 