The Glasgow Human Rights Network
Published: 30 June 2022
Yingru Li, a lecturer from the Adam Smith Business School talks about the Glasgow Human Rights Network, what they do, and how you could get involved with, or follow their work.
The Glasgow Human Rights Network was established in 2011, and we are a network of scholars and practitioners in Scotland who study and work to protect human rights in Scotland and beyond. The network now comprises members from the University of Glasgow and universities across Scotland, as well as civil society and national and local government from across Scotland. The network aims to become an internationally recognised network for human rights, to facilitate interdisciplinary research collaboration, to support interdisciplinary teaching in human rights, particularly at postgraduate level, to support knowledge exchange between practitioners and researchers, and to provide a public forum for lectures, debates, and other activities.
In the past 10 years, the Glasgow Human Rights Network has been engaging in a wide range of activities to support teaching and research around human rights, and to facilitate links between academics within and beyond Glasgow as well as to facilitate knowledge exchange between academics and practitioners. We hold a series of events which features internationally renowned experts in the field of human rights. For example, we hold conferences focusing on different themes, we hold book reading and launching workshops, we hold lectures and seminars with various topics, and we also hold activities that are specifically focusing on students such as graduate conferences as well as film festivals. We have a wide range of audiences from different perspectives, such as researchers from legal, philosophical, political, sociological and business, practitioners from different industries, state and non-state actors, etc.
In more recent years, the network has experienced some new development, and has developed a number of research clusters based around different themes and areas of research and activism within the network. The clusters provide a place for those with similar interests to share research and information, and plan various activities and future collaborative research projects. For example, the network has a specific interest on equality and diversity, including work on gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, age, class, disabilities, religion and the intersections of associated inequalities and marginalisation. The network has been engaging with several projects with extensive dissemination especially to LGBTI and human rights NGOs worldwide via social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and has contributed to various conferences and events on LGBTI human rights.
Furthermore, in the field of business and human rights, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) published the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011, aiming to tackle and prevent business-related human rights abuses by closing governance gaps in the largely unrestrained global market economy. With the endorsement of the UNGPs, the Glasgow Human Rights Network also has a special interest on business and human rights. We’ve been working for the realization of business respect for human rights, holding seminars to discuss the different ways to hold business accountable for human rights related issues, and some of our members engaging in research projects on how National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) can effectively support, engage, influence and interact with businesses.
Within the development of the Glasgow Human Rights Network, we’ve experienced restructures, and have now developed into a network with rich scholars, graduates and practitioners with great interest and experience in human rights. The network has published several publications, consultations and reports on human rights, and our members are involved in a wide range of research projects on human rights in local, national and international contexts. And the network will continue to hold lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences in the field of human rights, and welcome organizations, practitioners, researchers, PhD and Masters students working on human rights from any discipline.
In a Special Issue of the Human Rights Review, the GHRN brought together a multidisciplinary group of human rights experts to critically examine the construction and effectiveness of key elements of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), which were adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011. Based on these analyses, we argue that the BHRR’s effectiveness is inhibited by three major constraints: the weak conception of corporate human rights accountability in the UNGPs; the insufficient regard to the perspective of victims of corporate human rights abuse; and the structural gaps and misalignments in the BHRR’s governance architecture. Please follow this link for more information and a summary of the article.
Business and Human Rights After the UN Guiding Principles - A Critical Assessment
Human Rights Review, Vol. 23, No. 1 (2022), Special Issue:
“Business and Human Rights Regulation After the UN Guiding Principles”
Guest Editors: René Wolfsteller & Yingru Li
With a concern for social justice and fairness, Yingru Li is interested in research that could have policy significance and impacts on the practice of corporate accountability for human rights and sustainable economy. In translating the theoretical concerns to the practice, she is closely engaged in projects that explore human rights issues in the corporate world and how to mobilize businesses to be “better” and more responsible.
First published: 30 June 2022