LAWASIA Business & Human Rights: A guide for Lawyers in the Asia Pacific 

The project to develop “Business and Human Rights: A Guide for Lawyers in the Asia Pacific” was launched in early 2018 by Christopher Leong, the President of LAWASIA. LAWASIA first published the “Joint Declaration of Commitment on the Development and Promotion of the Field of Business and Human Rights within the Legal Profession” in 2015 with a number of national Bar and Law Societies.

Since then, LAWASIA has explored this important topic with Bar leaders and experts at conferences in Sydney (2015), Colombo (2016), Tokyo (2017), Siam Reap (2018) and New Delhi (2019).

The Human Rights Section of LAWASIA has led the drafting of this Guide, with significant contributions by LAWASIA’s Environmental Law Committee. Through this process, the Guide has begun to address the challenges faced by lawyers in the Asia Pacific with respect to the adverse impacts of business activities on human rights, the environment and corrupt practices.

As noted in the introduction to this Guide, it is not intended to be a comprehensive or academic resource, but rather to be a guidance document and toolkit for lawyers in daily practice. It is also intended to be a ‘living document’ and will be regularly updated to ensure that it remains relevant as a practical guide.

Contributors: 

-Professor Yasushi Higashizawa, Co-Chair, Human Rights Section | LAWASIA

-Mr Shyam Divan, Co-Chair, Human Rights Section, Senior Advocate | LAWASIA

-Matthew Baird, Deputy Chair of the Environmental Law subcommittee

-David Simpson, Managing Director of Interpraxis Consulting

Download the toolkit