From 05 December to 06 December 2024, the two-day workshop “Business and Human Rights – A Comparative Regional Perspective” took place at the Law Faculty of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The hybrid format was sponsored by the World University Network (WUN) and organized by
Frans Viljoen, former Head of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and Pierre Thielbörger, Managing Director of the Bochum-based Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV).

The IFHV was prominently represented by four panelists, Prof. Pierre Thielbörger, Rouven Diekjobst, Vanessa Bliecke and Aaron Dumont. Panelist Prof. Matteo Fornasier, Professor of Civil Law, Labour Law, Private International Law and Comparative Law at the Ruhr University Bochum as well as IFHV’s student assistants Joel Bella and Yari-Lasse Jäger completed the German delegation. As an expression of the universality of human rights, speakers from several continents, including Africa, South America, North America, Oceania and Europe, gave presentations on the question of how regional
approaches can lead to an improvement in the implementation and enforcement of the human rights-related obligations of companies.

The workshop was divided into four panels, each with three to four speakers. After the first panel took a fundamental and regional perspective on the derivation and justification of the application of human rights standards to private sector actors, the second panel focused on the question of (in)justice and (in)equality in the BHR system. The second day began with a presentation of the links between the legal field of BHR and issues of culture, the environment and agriculture. The last panel of the event was dedicated to the complicated relationship between BHR and private law. Overall, the conference was able to contribute to the transfer of knowledge and best practice through the (physical) gathering of academics and practitioners with different backgrounds from all over the  world. The justified concern of the Global South that it is not being sufficiently heard in the development and shaping of this area of law could be counteracted on this small scale, even if the political realities remain. The conference thus forms a cornerstone for further research on this and other questions that arise in the developing legal field of BHR.