Business and Human Rights

Multinational corporations and other business organizations bear rights and responsibilities under international human rights law. The past ten years have seen an exponential increase in cases brought against corporate actors across Europe, North America and Asia alleging violations of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law or complicity in such violations.

Curtis’ Business and Human Rights practice group helps companies align their governance and conduct with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), and other international legal instruments including the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy. Curtis guides its corporate clients to identify, prevent and remedy actual and potential human rights abuses that may arise from their business operations.

The team offers advice to corporations on developing and implementing effective grievance and remediation mechanisms within existing internal investigation policies and procedures. Our team members have broad experience in conducting internal investigations on behalf of corporate clients. Should matters proceed to litigation, our clients also benefit from a market leading disputes practice. Our team includes leading attorneys, academics, and thought leaders in the fields of international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law.

Advisory

• Providing comprehensive human rights due diligence, assessing companies’ legal exposure across jurisdictions, and identifying cost-effective mitigation strategies;
• Preparing human rights policies, modern slavery statements and environmental stewardship charters tailored to the legal, political, and economic context appropriate for clients across all industries, from the defense sector to the finance, healthcare, fashion, consumer, and energy sectors;
• Forced labor compliance, global supply chain risk mitigation, and trade protection under the 1930 Tariff Act regime, the EUs Deforestation Regulation, and related international trade laws;
• Briefing clients and training non-lawyer personnel on international treaties, national legislation; and EU and other regional human rights regulations, directives and guidelines.

Regional and International Advocacy

• Guiding clients through UN Special Procedures and human rights reporting frameworks, including the Reporting Framework of the United Nations Guiding Principles;

• Unparalleled expertise with government relations and policy in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia;

• Stakeholder engagement with civil society, government, and international organizations to enhance brand credibility on human rights and sustainability.

Dispute Resolution

• Developing and implementing effective grievance and remediation mechanisms within existing internal investigation policies and procedures;

• Conducting and overseeing internal investigations in the U.S. on behalf of corporate clients;

• Representing corporate clients when claims of corporate complicity or legal liability are raised before various national courts;

• Unparalleled expertise in international trade litigation with a track record that stands second to none.

Curtis attorneys are thought leaders who have published extensively in leading journals of public international and human rights law as well as instructors and professors at leading international law academic institutions. They have trained judges, prosecutors, investigators and military officers on international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law in jurisdictions around the world, and they have designed bespoke workshops on such topics for companies, international NGOs, the UN and other international organizations.

With our extensive experience in public international law and human rights law, coupled with our corporate law capabilities, Curtis can help corporations and other business organizations navigate the burgeoning field of international human rights law.

Our team includes former human rights officers and legal officers of the United Nations, legal advisors to permanent missions to the United Nations in New York, prosecutors and defense counsels in national courts and international tribunals and commissions, members of the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council and former attorneys of the United States Departments of State and Defense, the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague. A number of Curtis attorneys hold experience as military officers, where they have advised commanders on international humanitarian law and litigated high-profile war crimes cases, both at the trial and appellate levels.

Curtis attorneys have won extensive recognition and accolades for their groundbreaking work in international human rights law, including by Corporate Counsel Middle East, The American Lawyer, the Managing Partners’ Forum and the International Financial Law Review (IFLR).