Two Roads Converged: The Mutual Complementarity of a Binding Business and Human Rights Treaty and National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights

Adverse human rights impacts occur in business operations across all sectors.There is well documented evidence of such harms including, for example, low wages, excessive working hours, and child labor in the electronics and apparel sectors; human trafficking and questionable use of force in the private security sector; and forced labor and unsafe working conditions in the agricultural sector, to name a few. At the global level, two major initiatives are currently underway that aim to address such harms by increasing business respect for human rights. First, governments have begun to make commitments to implement business and human rights frameworks in policy documents known as National Action Plans (NAPs)on business and human rights. These NAPs are most often aimed at furthering implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which were unanimously adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2011. Second, an international process toward a binding treaty on business and human rights has begun through the UNHRC’s adoption in 2014 of a resolution tabled by a group of States demanding mandatory measures in addressing businessrelated human rights harms. Since the adoption of this resolution, however, some stakeholders have voiced concerns that this new treaty process and the creation of NAPs are in competition with one another.Specifically, some have expressed concerns that the treaty process may divert resources and attention away from domestic implementation of the UNGPs, that States would use the treaty process as an excuse not to make domestic reforms in line with the UNGPs, and that reopening negotiations around business and human rights standards could cause a weakening of consensus gained around the UNGPs. This article seeks to demonstrate that, not only are NAPs and the treaty process not in competition, these two global developments strongly benefit one another. First, NAPs processes will support the treaty process by identifying the most pressing gaps in protections and by highlighting which business and human rights issues governments agree on the most, which can then be used to target the content and scope of the treaty. Second, once a treaty is created, States that have gone through NAPs processes will be better equipped to identify which domestic reforms are necessary to become treaty–compliant. Third, NAPs processes lead to increased stakeholder capacity and knowledge about complex business and human rights issues, which then contributes to stakeholder engagement in the treaty process becoming more meaningful. Fourth, the dialogue around the treaty may foster new or strengthened relationships between business and human rights stakeholders from the Global North and those from the Global South, as well as strengthen already existing networks of business and human rights stakeholders in a way that will foster collaboration on efforts to implement the UNGPs. Finally, the increased attention on business and human rights that the treaty process has generated may bring new voices to the discussion around the implementation of the UNGPs. As such, these two roads currently traveled by business and human rights stakeholders are more converged than diverged, and, rather than viewing these efforts to be in opposition, each initiative should leverage the opportunities provided by the other

Two Roads Converged: The Mutual Complementarity of a Binding Business and Human Rights Treaty and National Action Plans on Business and Human Rights

Adverse human rights impacts occur in business operations across all sectors.There is well documented evidence of such harms including, for example, low wages, excessive working hours, and child labor in the electronics and apparel sectors; human trafficking and questionable use of force in the private security sector; and forced labor and unsafe working conditions in the agricultural sector, to name a few. At the global level, two major initiatives are currently underway that aim to address such harms by increasing business respect for human rights. First, governments have begun to make commitments to implement business and human rights frameworks in policy documents known as National Action Plans (NAPs)on business and human rights. These NAPs are most often aimed at furthering implementation of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which were unanimously adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2011. Second, an international process toward a binding treaty on business and human rights has begun through the UNHRC’s adoption in 2014 of a resolution tabled by a group of States demanding mandatory measures in addressing businessrelated human rights harms. Since the adoption of this resolution, however, some stakeholders have voiced concerns that this new treaty process and the creation of NAPs are in competition with one another.Specifically, some have expressed concerns that the treaty process may divert resources and attention away from domestic implementation of the UNGPs, that States would use the treaty process as an excuse not to make domestic reforms in line with the UNGPs, and that reopening negotiations around business and human rights standards could cause a weakening of consensus gained around the UNGPs. This article seeks to demonstrate that, not only are NAPs and the treaty process not in competition, these two global developments strongly benefit one another. First, NAPs processes will support the treaty process by identifying the most pressing gaps in protections and by highlighting which business and human rights issues governments agree on the most, which can then be used to target the content and scope of the treaty. Second, once a treaty is created, States that have gone through NAPs processes will be better equipped to identify which domestic reforms are necessary to become treaty–compliant. Third, NAPs processes lead to increased stakeholder capacity and knowledge about complex business and human rights issues, which then contributes to stakeholder engagement in the treaty process becoming more meaningful. Fourth, the dialogue around the treaty may foster new or strengthened relationships between business and human rights stakeholders from the Global North and those from the Global South, as well as strengthen already existing networks of business and human rights stakeholders in a way that will foster collaboration on efforts to implement the UNGPs. Finally, the increased attention on business and human rights that the treaty process has generated may bring new voices to the discussion around the implementation of the UNGPs. As such, these two roads currently traveled by business and human rights stakeholders are more converged than diverged, and, rather than viewing these efforts to be in opposition, each initiative should leverage the opportunities provided by the other

European union : labyrinth or reality? : European union and integration, 1969-1986

European Union is not a new or easily defined concept. Implicit in the Treaty of Rome - the founding Treaty of the European Community - is the intention of a federal form of political union. This union is to be achieved by a gradualist strategy of building solidarity among European people, beginning in the economic sphere. Using this historical perspective, this thesis examines European Union proposals from 1969 to 1986 in order to facilitate an understanding of them in terms of integration. The European Union proposals are found to contain little more than a reconfirmation or extension of the guidelines envisaged in the Treaty of Rome. Common themes are identified as the foci for areas where European Union can legitimately emerge or be expanded. These themes are related to integration approaches applicable to European Community experience. While no one integration approach can account for European Community reality, each approach highlights different unifying conditions and strategies which promote or hinder progress towards European Union. A case study of the European Parliament's draft European Union Treaty will relate the European Union proposals to the integration approaches in order to establish the current status of the European Community, as well as to suggest possible paths for the development of European Union

UNmet: The Undergraduate Experience of Basic Need Insecurity at an UNcommon University

Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Dean of Students office submitted a Request for Assistance with needs related to food and housing insecurity and lack of basic funds for students. To address this request, a doctoral Capstone team conducted a problem and context analysis, literature review, student focus groups, and an internal survey of departments. The goal was to explore the undergraduate experience of unmet needs and to identify gaps and overlaps in basic needs support and services already provided at VCU. Findings suggest that students do not know the resources available to them through the Dean of Students office, that students feel variable support in meeting their basic needs by VCU, and that institutional collaboration is limited around data sharing and services. The Capstone team identified critical challenges for the Dean of Students office, the greater VCU community, and strategies to improve the Culture of Care. Recommendations focused on tangible actions for the DOS office and others to make pertaining to basic needs insecurity and reframing the responsibility to reflect a campus-wide mindset, increasing awareness and usage of basic needs services, and leveraging data to maximize support

Abundances of Extremely Metal-Poor Star Candidates

We present chemical abundances for 110 stars identified in objective-prism surveys as candidates to be very metal-poor. The abundances are derived from high S/N, intermediate-resolution spectra obtained with the Keck Observatory Echelle Spectrometer and Imager. An additional 25 stars with well-determined abundances ranging from [Fe/H]$=-1.5$ and -3.2 were observed and the results used to help calibrate our analysis and determine the accuracy of our abundance determinations. Abundances for the program stars were measured for Fe, Mg, Ca, Ti, Cr and Ba with an accuracy of approximately 0.3 dex. 53 of the stars in our sample have [Fe/H]<= -2, 22 have [Fe/H]<= -2.5 and 13 stars have [Fe/H]<= -2.9. Surprisingly, approximately one third of the sample is relatively metal rich with [Fe/H]>-1.5. In addition to identifying a number of extremely metal-poor stars, this study also shows that moderate-resolution spectra obtained with the Keck Echelle Spectrometer and Imager yield relatively accurate abundances for stars as faint as V=14 in modest exposure time (~20 minutes). This capability will prove useful if the so-far elusive stars at [Fe/H]<-4 turn out to be mostly fainter than V=15.Comment: 60 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in the A

Stellar Archaeology: a Keck Pilot Program on Extremely Metal- Poor Stars From the Hamburg/ESO Survey. III. The Lead (Pb) Star HE 0024-2523

We present a detailed abundance analysis, including spectral syntheses, of a very metal-poor ([Fe/H]= -2.7), peculiar main sequence star, HE0024-2523 detected during the course of the Keck Pilot Program. Radial velocities of this star were obtained during four different observing runs over a time span of 1.1 years, and demonstrate that it is clearly a short period spectroscopic binary. An orbital solution was obtained, and orbital parameters were determined with high precision. The rotational velocity was also measured (vsin i=9.7$\pm$1.5 kms); rotation appears likely to be synchronous with the orbit. The abundance analysis and spectral syntheses indicate that the object is a CH star characterized by extreme s-process enrichment, likely due to mass accretion from an evolved companion which has now probably become a white dwarf. The lead (Pb) abundance of HE0024-2523 is very high, the same as that of the recently discovered lead-rich metal-poor star CS 29526-110, [Pb/Fe]=+3.3. The abundance ratio of the heavy-s to light-s elements, as characterized by Pb and Ba, [Pb/Ba]=+1.9, is the highest yet found for any metal-poor star, and is about 0.7 dex higher than that of CS29526-110. On the basis of the measured isotopic ratio of carbon (12C/13C about 6) we argue that the mass donor must have had an original mass of at least 3 Msun. The unusually short period of this CH star suggests that it underwent a past common-envelope phase with its evolved companion. Our results are compared to the latest available models for AGB yields and s-process nucleosynthesis. We also discuss the possible connection between HE0024-2523 the lithium depletion of halo stars, and halo blue straggler formation.Comment: 55 pages, 17 color figures included; Accepted for publication in the February 2003 issue of the Astronomical Journa