Call For Papers: An Invitation to the Conference on Corporate Accountability, Business and Human Rights: African Perspective, June 2017

This Pan-African conference on Business and Human Rights will be held under the theme ‘Corporate Accountability: An African Perspective’.  The purpose of the proposed conference is to discuss how the business and human rights framework can better accommodate, and be more responsive to, the African political, social, legal and economic context.  It also responds to the de-emphasis, on a global level, of the voice and opinions of those in Africa on the narrative, characterisation and theorising on business and human rights.

The conference will bring together academics, theorist, and thought leaders from Africa to discuss the business and human rights movement and the extent to which, in its current form, it is able (or unable) to address human rights violations committed by corporate actors in Africa.

Specifically, the conference hopes to:

• Identify shortcomings in the business and human rights narrative to the extent that it fails to appreciate the social, legal, political and economic realities in Africa;
• Determine the extent to which the inequality between the Global South and Global North in the international arena has skewed the business and human rights narrative in favour of developed economies;
• Identify specific case studies and practical examples;
• Raise key issues that should be addressed in order to make the business and human rights regime more responsive to the African context; and
• Develop new tools of analysis in evaluating the African agenda for business and human rights so that it is both practical and substantive in content...

...We ask all interested speakers to submit abstracts of a maximum of 500 words by 11 February 2017.  The first draft of the papers will be due on the 15 May 2017.  The papers will be reviewed by the CALS’ editorial team, which may provide comments before the conference which is set to take place in June 2017.  Final papers will be due on 1 September 2017.  The manuscript will be submitted for publication in January 2018.  Please submit your abstract to Prof Bonita Meyersfeld ([email protected]).

[see also full concept note]