Mind the Gap: Private Capital Challenges in Rights-respecting Investments

Costa Rica

June 6, 2023

10:15 - 11:15 am CST (Costa Rica)

Private capital investors, such as private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) firms, play a crucial gatekeeper role in deciding which technology companies make it onto the market. This has far-reaching consequences for human rights, particularly in light of the increased use of surveillance and spyware technologies.

BSR, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), and Amnesty International are co-hosting a closed-door session at RightsCon 2023 between private capital investors, civil society, and government to explore the human rights implications of tech investments. The session will highlight key challenges that private capital investors face with human rights due diligence processes and identify practical ways to overcome these challenges. The session will also provide a safe space to advance the dialogue between various stakeholders around rights-respecting tech investments.

Applying Chatham House Rule, the session will cover:

Challenges private capital investors face when carrying out due diligence processes
Best practices on how digital rights groups and investors can engage with each other
Practical steps for investors on how to carry out human rights due diligence

About RightsCon

RightsCon is the world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age. In 2011, Access Now hosted the first-ever RightsCon (then the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference). The intention was to create something different: a civil society-led space where all stakeholders—from tech companies to government representatives to human rights defenders—could come together to build a rights-respecting digital future. Since then, RightsCon has rotated between five continents and grown, both in size and in scope to meet the evolving needs of a movement. Today, both public and private technology companies from around the world attend RightsCon to learn from and share insights with others.

Scheduled Speakers

Kindra Mohr, Associate Director, Financial Services and Human Rights, BSR

Associate Director, Financial Services and Human Rights, BSR

New York

Bringing her expertise as a business and human rights attorney, Kindra leads BSR's work at the intersection of finance and human rights.

Kindra has nearly 15 years of experience in advancing human rights, social and environmental sustainability, and access to remedy within the financial sector. She advises financial institutions and their corporate clients and investees on innovative solutions to prevent and address human rights risks and impacts on the ground, including through stakeholder engagement and the development of grievance mechanisms.

Previously, Kindra consulted for the International Finance Corporation and worked with clients at PwC to integrate best practices into their corporate governance frameworks. She also worked for the US Senate and served for five years as the Policy Director for a global nonprofit, advocating with communities for environmental and social protections and access to remedy in international finance. In addition, Kindra has lived and worked for nonprofits in Argentina, Haiti, and Peru on access to justice and corporate accountability.

Kindra obtained her law degree at Boston College and holds a MA in International Economics and International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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