Human Rights | Focus Areas | Sustainable Business Network and Advisory Services

Around the world, societal inequality, geopolitical conflict, and the mounting effects of climate change are placing increasing pressure on companies to ensure that human rights are respected throughout their value chains.

Companies that align their business practices with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights are better equipped to prevent harm to workers and neighboring communities, reduce reputational and operational risk, meet international expectations and standards, comply with investor demands, and attract and retain talent.

BSR helps companies understand and act on these principles by strengthening their management of human rights risks, developing integrated sustainability strategies, and supporting collaborations to address the systemic causes of human rights harm.

How We Can Help

Adding Value to Your Business and Society

BSR’s Human Rights team can help you navigate the increasingly fragmented global human rights landscape, more effectively manage human rights risks, and address the systemic causes of human rights harm. Our advisory services can be scaled, paired, and tailored to meet your company’s unique needs.

Sample services include:

Human Rights Assessments (HRA)

Strategy Design

Post-HRA Implementation Support

Living Wage Assessment and Strategy

Stakeholder and Rightsholder Engagement

Heightened Human Rights Due Diligence of Conflict-affected and High-risk Areas

Regulatory Preparedness

Grievance Mechanisms and Remedy

Modern Slavery

Human Rights and Environmental Strategy Alignment

Explore our full array of strategic advisory services.

Case Studies

Updating Scotiabank’s Human Rights Strategy

BSR worked with the Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank) to refresh its Human Rights Assessment (HRA) and update its Human Rights Statement.

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Human Rights Team Leads

Alison Berthet

Associate Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

Paris

Associate Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

Paris

Alison supports companies in embedding respect for human rights across their organizations and value chain. She brings a strong, collaborative spirit and expertise in developing and implementing strategies and governance, due diligence, and engagement mechanisms to effectively manage human rights risks.

Alison joined BSR from BT Group plc, a BSR member company, where she led the development of a new human rights strategy geared at ensuring a responsible approach to how the organization buys, sells, develops, and uses technology. Highlights included setting up a new steering group, engaging key internal stakeholders through innovative workshops, and integrating human rights risks in BT’s group risk management framework. Before that, Alison trained and practiced as a corporate lawyer at the global law firm Hogan Lovells, specializing in international arbitration and business and human rights disputes. Her experience included advising a European energy company and its executives against a potential criminal prosecution for complicit liability in war crimes committed by a state military.

Alison holds a LLM in Public International Law and a BSc in International Relations and History from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Alison is fluent in English and French.

Recent Insights From Alison Berthet

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Emma Giloth

Associate Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

New York

Associate Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

New York

Emma Giloth leads BSR's Living Wage practice. She works at the intersection of human rights; food, beverage, and agriculture; consumer marketing; and ethical supply chains.

Emma leads human rights impact and risk assessments, and guides companies on supply chain due diligence and responsible purchasing practices. As lead on BSR's Living Wage practice, she supports companies to activate and manage their Living Wage programs for their owned operations and to build strategies to ensure workers across their supply chains are paid sufficiently.

Prior to BSR, Emma worked in the consumer-packaged goods industry, where she specialized in ethical sourcing of climate-smart ingredients from farmers. A social entrepreneur at heart, she previously co-founded a sustainable natural products brand in Senegal, and continues to work as an advisor to several African brands.

Recent Insights From Emma Giloth

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Salah Husseini

Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

Paris

Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

Paris

Salah leads BSR’s human rights practice within the Consumer Sectors industry cluster, which includes the following sub-clusters: Food, Beverage, and Agriculture; Commodities Trading; Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality; Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals; and Luxury, Apparel, and Beauty. He supports companies in implementing human rights due diligence programs and human rights strategy and governance development, as well as aligning with regulatory, investor, and other stakeholder expectations around human rights management. Additionally, Salah leads the Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality and is a regular contributor to the Human Rights Working Group.

Prior to joining BSR, Salah worked at a major media conglomerate where he ensured compliance with labor law requirements within the company’s manufacturing supply chain. He also worked with a standard-setting organization that developed the first auditable program for labor standards enforcement in manufacturing. Additionally, he practiced as an attorney in New York City, focusing on civil rights issues.

Salah holds a J.D. from the American University Washington College of Law, and a B.A. in Political Science, Spanish, and Arabic and Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan. He speaks Arabic, English, and Spanish.

Recent Insights From Salah Husseini

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Kayla Winarsky McKenzie

Associate Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

New York

Associate Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

New York

Kayla collaborates with BSR member companies on projects centering on the corporate responsibility to respect human rights, focusing on companies within the consumer sectors industry cluster. Her areas of expertise include energy transition, anti-corruption, and gender.

Prior to joining BSR, Kayla spent several years advising multinational companies and investors on human rights as an Adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, during which she also served as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Amsterdam, focusing on Business and Human Rights (BHR), international human rights, anti-corruption, and EU law. Previously, she worked on global anti-corruption investigations and cross-border white collar litigations as an Associate Attorney at the international law firm King & Spalding LLP, where she was the founding member of the firm's BHR initiative.

Kayla holds a JD and a Certificate in Global Human Rights from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, which included course work at the Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement, and a BA, Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude from Tulane University.

Recent Insights From Kayla Winarsky McKenzie

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Paloma Muñoz Quick

Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

Copenhagen

Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

Copenhagen

Paloma leads BSR’s work on Human Rights Standards, including standard-setting, knowledge management, and helping companies respond to emerging standards and regulation. She is also Senior Advisor to BSR’s Finance & Human Rights Practice.

Prior to joining BSR, Paloma was Advisor to the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and Senior Consultant of the UN B-Tech Project, where she developed a vision for promoting the uptake of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights among investors and guidance on responsible investment in digital technologies. Prior to the UN, Paloma launched and led the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, where she developed thought leadership on the investor responsibility to respect human rights and supported stewardship engagements across industries. She also worked at the Danish Institute for Human Rights advising companies, governments, and civil society on business and human rights.

Paloma is a member of the US government’s Advisory Committee on Responsible Business Conduct. She sits on the Editorial Board of Developments in the Field of the Business and Human Rights Journal of Cambridge University.

She holds a Master of International Affairs (M.I.A.) in Human Rights from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a B.A. in Political Science, also from Columbia University.

Paloma is Chilean-American and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Recent Insights From Paloma Muñoz Quick

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Jenny Vaughan

Managing Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

San Francisco

Managing Director, Human Rights and Inclusive Business, BSR

San Francisco

Jenny leads BSR’s human rights team and portfolio across consulting and collaboration. In addition to directing BSR’s Human Rights Working Group, Jenny leads human rights assessments and partners with companies to develop human rights strategies and stakeholder engagement plans. She works across industries with a focus on energy, technology, and conflict-affected and high-risk contexts.

Prior to joining BSR, Jenny worked at Mercy Corps for over a decade in field management and advisory roles to prevent and mitigate conflict, promote inclusive economic development, and build civil society capacity. As the organization’s first Peace and Governance Director in Myanmar and later as the Director of the Peace and Conflict technical advisory team, she designed and implemented programs to reduce violence, promote peace and development, and address critical and emerging threats like climate change, disruptive technology, and poor governance. She has experience in context analysis, stakeholder engagement, negotiation, project design and implementation, and strategic planning. Jenny has lived and worked in countries including Myanmar, Indonesia, Nepal, Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Central African Republic, and Cameroon.

Jenny holds a MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a BA in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Recent Insights From Jenny Vaughan

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Richard Wingfield

Director, Responsible Tech, BSR

London

Director, Responsible Tech, BSR

London

Richard co-leads BSR's Responsible Technology, working with companies that develop and use technology to build human rights considerations and practices into their products, services, and policies. He brings a strong understanding of international human rights law and standards and how to translate the corporate responsibility to respect human rights into practice for companies of different sizes and sectors.

Richard is particularly experienced in supporting companies with their regulatory requirements where these touch upon human rights considerations, and has worked with many companies undertaking risk assessments required by the EU's Digital Services Act and UK's Online Safety Act.

Prior to joining BSR, Richard led the legal and policy team at Global Partners Digital, an international human rights organization focused on the impacts of digital technologies on human rights.

Richard holds a LLB in Law and European Law from the University of Nottingham and is a qualified lawyer in England and Wales.

Recent Insights From Richard Wingfield

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Human Rights Insights

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