Hi my name is Shelley Marshall and I'm
the Director of the new business of
Human Rights Center at RMIT University
it gives me great pleasure today to
bring you this very brief presentation
about our capacity to conduct applied
research in relation to the impact of
business on human rights during the COVID-19
pandemic and in the post pandemic
economic recession. Our new Business
and Human Rights Center is concerned
with the human rights impact of business
activities and how business can become a
force for good and enhance the human
rights that people that business
interacts with enjoy. We carry out
applied research critically examining
the current impact of business through
supply chains. We run industry
masterclasses, training today and
tomorrow's leaders in innovative
approaches to ethical business. We
conduct consultancies. These are
shorter term advice about policy and
practice for business. We run design
labs using the MBA design studio to
collaboratively problem-solve with
business and come up with new and
innovative ways for addressing problems
that business has in in addressing human
rights breaches. We have six
key areas of focus which are led by six
team leaders. We focus on gender, climate
change, technology, health, peace and
conflict, and labour in supply chains.
I'd like to give you a taste of some of
the projects that we're running at the
moment which relate to COVID-19 and
human rights. One of our project
is led by Dr. Kate Grosser, myself and Sara
Todt and it's concerned with the
resilience of global supply chains.
This project is asking how garment
workers in Myanmar are navigating COVID-19
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and the recession and in particular
what the consequences are for these
workers as they're losing work or their
work is being significantly diminished.
What does this tell us? What are the
lessons for business about how supply
chains can be made more resilient and
more able to cope with economic
shock and pandemics? Another project that
I'm involved with examines the impact of
COVID-19 on front frontline
workers. This project is particularly
concerned with cleaning and meat workers
and the ways that the organization of
work and the way that supply chains are
organized is creating or increasing
hazard. It is interested in finding
ways that parties throughout the supply
chain: investors, owners of buildings and
workers' unions -all the parties
involved in supply chain - can be part of
the solution. It's particularly
interested in what digital technologies
can do in terms of tracing supply chains
and providing more transparency. Leeanne
Morrison and Allan Lowe have a really
interesting project on the ontological
links between COVID-19, climate change
and capitalism. They are interested in
what the links are between this current
pandemic, climate change and the way that
we treat each other and nature and how
this can inform a less harmful post
pandemic pathway. I really encourage you
to look into the really fascinating work
that they both do. Then a final
project that I wanted to bring your
attention to, and this is just one of
many many projects that we're running in
the Center right now is led by Adam
Fletcher who's our Technology Lead in
the Center. It is concerned with
surveillance and tracking in
times of emergency. He is studying trends
in surveillance and tracking of
individuals during the COVID-19
pandemic. As you'll be aware, much
of the surveillance that's occurring of
individuals is by business or is by
government but using apps that
are designed and run by business, so he's
asking whether surveillance measures
are compatible
with Australia's international and
domestic human rights obligations.
That should give you a taste of the kind
of work that we're doing at the Business
and Human Rights Center. We invite you to
get in touch with me or anyone in our
Center to talk about possible
collaboration or how we can help you as
business get better at mitigating and
remedying breaches of human rights when
they occur. Thank you.