Event

Event Overview

In this roundtable, hosted by the HLS Human Rights Program, the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, and the Human Rights Entrepreneurs Clinic we will be discussing an unpublished study by Bonita Meyersfeld, Shifting the Sands: When Do Corporations have Positive Duties to Fulfil Socio-Economic Rights?. In this piece, Meyersfeld contends that corporations ought to bear affirmative responsibilities in upholding all human rights, notably socio-economic rights, under international human rights law. This assertion finds its basis in the stark structural disparity between affluent corporations and impoverished segments of the global population that is sustained and entrenched by a nexus of global economic inequality, international trade, and transnational corporate power. 

Those interested in participating should email [email protected] to RSVP and obtain a digital copy of the study. Participants will be expected to have read the work and come prepared to offer constructive comments. As this is a work in progress, please also do not distribute outside of this group. 

Bonita Meyersfeld is an Associate Professor at Wits Law School, an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, and a member of the Johannesburg Society of Advocates. She was the director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at Wits Law School and the founding member and chair of the board of Lawyers against Abuse. Meyersfeld is the author of the book Domestic Violence and International Law, and most recently co-authored the article “From Formalism to Feminism: Gender, Business and Human Rights.”