On Wednesday, 14 January 2026, Lara Blecher, PhD candidate at UCL Laws and member of the Global Centre for Democratic Constitutionalism, organised a webinar entitled ‘Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) and Investors: The Role of Stakeholder Engagement’. The event was hosted by the UCL Centre for Ethics and Law (CEL) and chaired by Professor Iris Chiu from the CEL. Blecher, one of the panellists, set the scene in defining the concepts of rights holders and HREDD, and their importance in the context of the recent ruling against BHP and Vale in the UK Samarco litigation.
Professor Stephen Park from the University of Connecticut then spoke about the need to create incentives and provide adequate resources for investors to engage meaningfully with rights holders. Liz Umlas, Senior Advisor to IndustriALL Global Union explained the importance of two-way communication in capital stewardship based on her work with a particular subset of rights holders – workers. Finally, Dana Phillips from Morgan Stanley shared how she undertakes HREDD in her work and when rights holder engagement can be relevant to this process.
The event highlighted that HREDD should be an important corporate governance tool, both to ensure that human rights and environmental rights are respected and to promote sustainable business practices. Blecher expressed a concern that the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive allows businesses too much discretion in setting human rights and environmental standards and HREDD processes, thus compromising human rights and environmental outcomes. However, other panellists noted that investors are starting to recognise that this HREDD – including rights holder engagement – is important for effective business conduct and financial performance.
Although the panellists cited obstacles to having investors engage with rights holders, the discussion was largely positive. The role of AI in identifying rights holder concerns when direct contact with rights holders is not possible was discussed as a tool of growing importance for investors.