Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
HREDD and Investors: The Role of Stakeholder Engagement
A UCL Centre for Ethics & Law webinar
About this webinar
Do institutional investors care about speaking to the people worst affected by their portfolio companies' human rights practices? The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) form the most authoritative, if non-binding, international standard on business and human rights. They set out a human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) process that all businesses, including institutional investors, are meant to use in implementing their responsibility to respect human rights. HREDD is increasingly being enshrined in domestic law and international legal instruments, such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). While both the UNGPs and hard legal instruments call for stakeholder engagement to be part of HREDD, the CSDDD does not apply to investors. So what role should stakeholder engagement play in HREDD undertaken by institutional investors?
This panel includes academic experts on the UNGPs and investment practitioners. They will discuss their views on the role that stakeholder engagement - and particularly engagement with rights holders affected by business conduct - should play in HREDD undertaken by institutional investors.
The Panel
Chair: Professor Iris Chiu, UCL
Panellists:
Lara Blecher, PhD Candidate at UCL, will set the context by speaking about her work with investors on engaging affected rights holders to inform their HREDD processes and investment decision-making.
Professor Stephen Park, University of Connecticut, will discuss what stakeholder engagement means and investor motivations for engaging rights holders.
Liz Umlas, IndustriALL Global Union, will discuss how investors can integrate input from specific rights holders - workers - into their human rights and environmental due diligence processes.
Dana Phillips, Morgan Stanley, will discuss how investor engagement with rights holders can highlight financial concerns with portfolio companies.
The UCL Centre for Ethics & Law brings together leading academics, practitioners and policy makers to support cutting edge and interdisciplinary research at the intersection of ethics and law. Subscribe to receive updates on the centre and similar events.
HREDD and Investors: The Role of Stakeholder Engagement
A UCL Centre for Ethics & Law webinar
About this webinar
Do institutional investors care about speaking to the people worst affected by their portfolio companies' human rights practices? The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) form the most authoritative, if non-binding, international standard on business and human rights. They set out a human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) process that all businesses, including institutional investors, are meant to use in implementing their responsibility to respect human rights. HREDD is increasingly being enshrined in domestic law and international legal instruments, such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). While both the UNGPs and hard legal instruments call for stakeholder engagement to be part of HREDD, the CSDDD does not apply to investors. So what role should stakeholder engagement play in HREDD undertaken by institutional investors?
This panel includes academic experts on the UNGPs and investment practitioners. They will discuss their views on the role that stakeholder engagement - and particularly engagement with rights holders affected by business conduct - should play in HREDD undertaken by institutional investors.
The Panel
Chair: Professor Iris Chiu, UCL
Panellists:
Lara Blecher, PhD Candidate at UCL, will set the context by speaking about her work with investors on engaging affected rights holders to inform their HREDD processes and investment decision-making.
Professor Stephen Park, University of Connecticut, will discuss what stakeholder engagement means and investor motivations for engaging rights holders.
Liz Umlas, IndustriALL Global Union, will discuss how investors can integrate input from specific rights holders - workers - into their human rights and environmental due diligence processes.
Dana Phillips, Morgan Stanley, will discuss how investor engagement with rights holders can highlight financial concerns with portfolio companies.
The UCL Centre for Ethics & Law brings together leading academics, practitioners and policy makers to support cutting edge and interdisciplinary research at the intersection of ethics and law. Subscribe to receive updates on the centre and similar events.
