Event details
Programme
02 Oct 2025 Past event
Human Rights, Environment & Business: Competitive Advantages
We are pleased to invite you to a high-level roundtable, jointly organized by the Council of Europe, CMS Francis Lefebvre, Marsh and Alvarez & Marsal, to discuss how international Human Rights & Environment Compliance offer businesses opportunities to strengthen their practices.
Businesses are increasingly affected by the development of due diligence obligations, the growing judicial scrutiny of their impact, and the evolution of legal standards on human rights and environmental protection. Can these developments ultimately provide competitive advantages for businesses in the long run?
Our distinguished experts – including representatives from the European Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe – will examine the relevance of these developments for states, societies, individuals, businesses, and insurers. This event offers a unique opportunity to gain strategic insights into evolving legal frameworks and trends in judicial oversight.
We warmly encourage you to attend the event in person (limited space availability), so you can fully benefit from the opportunity to exchange with our international speakers, especially during the networking lunch buffet that will follow the discussions.
Discover the full agenda here.
Agenda
- 08:30 am - 09:00 am: Welcome coffee
- 09:00 am - 09:15 am: Welcoming remarks
- 09:15 am - 10:45 am: First panel: Standards and requirements for human rights compliant business practices
- Implementation and operational integration of companies’ compliance programs
- Responses to alleged violations
- Harm mitigation through strong compliance
- Benchmarking against UN, OECD, CoE, and ISO standards (e.g. ISO 37301, ISO 26000)
- Proactive risk anticipation
Moderator: Tigran Karapetyan, Head of Division Transversal Challenges and Multilateral Projects, Council of Europe
Speakers:
- Daniel Pap, Legal Adviser Digital Development Unit, Council of Europe
- Professor Dorothee Baumann-Pauly, Director of the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights
- Grigory Dikov, Senior Lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights
- Jean-Fabrice Brun, Partner, CMS Francis Lefebvre
- 10:45 am - 11:00 am: Coffee break
- 11:00 am - 12:30 pm : Second panel: Practical solutions: compliance, investigations, and insurance
- Embedding due diligence into legal and compliance functions
- Sector-specific examples: energy, finance, agrifood
- Conducting effective internal investigations under regulatory and judicial scrutiny
- The role of insurance (D&O, liability, ESG-linked products) in corporate resilience
- How ESG and Human Rights compliance can improve insurance terms and investor confidence
Moderator: Nicolas Tollet, Partner, CMS Francis Lefebvre
Speakers:
- Boris Verbrugge, Responsible Business Conduct Advisor, Möbius Business Redesign
- Claire Bright, Associate Professor at NOVA School of Law and Founder & Director of the NOVA Centre on Business, Human Rights and the Environment
- Colin Johnson, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal
- Nicolas Dzubanowski, Head of Environmental Insurance, Marsh
- 12:30 pm: Networking lunch
Information
- Date: Thursday, October 2, 2025
- Time: 09:00 am - 12:30 pm
- Welcome coffee - 08:30 am
- Online & in-person: CMS Francis Lefebvre, 2 rue Ancelle, 92200, Neuilly-sur-Seine France
- Contact: events@cms-fl.com
- Following your registration, you will receive all the necessary information to connect digitally to the roundtable or to attend it in person
Register now to attend online or in-person before Thursday, September 25, 2025. Seats are limited.
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