GBI Conversations - podcast series
About the GBI Conversations podcasts
GBI Conversations is a series of insightful podcasts with respected international experts. The podcasts are designed for business practitioners looking to advance their business and human rights work and expertise. Business-oriented and focussed on practice and daily implementation of some of the most pressing areas of human rights due diligence, GBI Conversations has met high acclaim in the business and human rights field. Subscribe or listen on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or stream directly below.
GBI Conversations - special editions
GBI Senior Advisors Gerald Pachoud, Anita Ramasastry and Jonathan Drimmer discuss why international criminal law should now be treated as a material business risk, particularly for companies operating in or connected to conflict-affected and high-risk contexts. The discussion explores how exposure can arise not only through direct conduct, but also through business relationships, supply chains, products, services and operational decisions. It also looks at what companies can do in practice to strengthen governance, due diligence and risk monitoring.
Read the issue paper, Blind Spot in the Boardroom
Explore GBI’s conflict page
On the day of the final adoption of Omnibus I by the Council of the EU, our GBI Conversations podcast featured Heidi Hautala, GBI Special Advisor and former Vice-President of the European Parliament, in conversation with GBI Director, Sophia Areias. Heidi and Sophia mark this moment, looking at back to how we got here and what here looks like now, considering implications for company preparation for the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), and also considers how due diligence-related expectations are appearing in several other pieces of EU Regulation.
"Are human rights dead?": A live recorded discussion with John Morrison and GBI Senior Advisor Gerald Pachoud recorded in Geneva at the ICRC, November 2025
GBI's CEO Ron Popper discusses some of the toughest business and human rights challenges facing companies today with outgoing Executive Director of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Phil Bloomer.
GBI Conversations | Series 1
Mandatory measures: challenges for business
In this podcast series, GBI advisors, guest experts and team members discuss key challenges for companies presented by emerging mandatory human rights due diligence laws. The series highlights crucial developments and areas where expectations of business practice are both strengthening and hardening.
We hope you find this series valuable. You can also play this series, subscribe and receive notifications on Apple Podcast and SoundCloud.
Episode 13 - Engaging suppliers on human rights
To accompany GBI's guidance briefing on Engaging Suppliers, this podcast with GBI Senior Advisor Anita Ramasastry, GBI Regional Advisor for South Asia, Rishi Sher Singh, and GBI Director Sophia Areias explores insights and practical examples of how companies can engage with suppliers to advance human rights.
Episode 12 - Embedding human rights in governance processes
This podcast accompanies GBI's latest guidance briefing in the “What ‘good’ looks like” series. GBI CEO, Ron Popper, and Director for External Engagement and Informing Policy, Sophia Areias, discuss insights and examples from practice of how businesses can truly and effectively integrate human rights into their core governance processes. It also provides practice-based recommendations to policymakers working on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence.
Episode 11 - Cutting through the noise: Business & human rights, mandatory measures and the shifting policy landscape
In this episode, GBI Advisors Anita Ramasastry, Jonathan Drimmer and Gerald Pachoud, and GBI Director Sophia Areias discuss the challenges posed by the shifting policy and political landscape, and how business can navigate these uncertainties through practice. This episode was recorded on 27 February 2025.
Episode 10 - The UNGPs in the age of corporate accountability: Dead or alive?
In this special extended podcast Heidi Hautala, Former Vice-President of the European Parliament and Gerald Pachoud, GBI Senior Advisor and former Special Advisor to Prof. John Ruggie, discuss the role of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in the age of corporate accountability, with a focus on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D).
Episode 9 - Why companies should be doubling down on their UNGPs commitments
Andrea Shemberg and Jo Reyes discuss why companies should be doubling down on their commitment to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in the face of mandatory measures. Listen below or on SoundCloud.
Episode 8 - CSDDD: Perspectives from Southeast Asia
The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) will have wide-ranging implications for companies outside of Europe.
In this episode, GBI Strategic Regional Advisor, Sean Lees, provides reactions to the passing of the directive from his discussions with business practitioners across the region.
Episode 7 - The CSDDD: An analysis for business practitioners
The approval of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) marks an important milestone. Despite significant watering down, the Directive promises a uniform standard for corporate human rights and environmental due diligence across EU member states, with implications far beyond EU boundaries.
GBI CEO Ron Popper shares his analysis – the disappointments but also signs of renewed hope for the future. Whilst subject to significant compromises, implementation of the Directive still signifies a crucial step forward in embedding core elements of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights into hard national law.
Episode 6 - How can commercial lawyers support their company to implement effective human rights due diligence, manage risk and meet stakeholders' expectations?
Anita Ramasastry, Senior Advisor to the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights discusses the role of commercial lawyers in supporting companies to implement HRDD is changing, what commercial lawyers can do to support their companies navigate mandatory human rights due diligence requirements in a meaningful and effective way, and opportunities to overcome key challenges.
Read more about the changing legal landscape.
Episode 5 - Expectations regarding access to remedy are hardening - is your company prepared?
Jon Drimmer, Senior Advisor to the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights, explores how expectations regarding access to remedy are hardening as a result of mandatory human rights due diligence laws, what this means for business and how to prepare.
Episode 4 - Getting out – what do mandatory measures mean for exit and divestment?
Gerald Pachoud, Senior Advisor to the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights discusses what mandatory human rights due diligence requirements mean for responsible exit and divestment.
Episode 3 - Why meaningful engagement with stakeholders is key to managing legal risk
Andrea Shemberg explores why meaningful engagement with stakeholders is key to implementing effective human rights due diligence – and to managing legal risk – and what ‘meaningful’ looks like.
Episode 2 - Getting serious about downstream due diligence – where should your company start?
It’s time for companies to get serious about downstream human rights due diligence. But how should they started? This podcast draws on examples and insights from emerging business practices.
Read the recently released report, Effective Downstream Human Rights Due Diligence: Key Questions for Companies
Episode 1 - Is your company’s human rights due diligence really good enough?
Ron Popper, CEO of the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights examines what ‘good’ looks like when it comes to implementing human rights due diligence (HRDD), how a company can assess whether its HRDD is really good enough – and why it should do so now.
GBI Conversations | Series 2
Implementing human rights in company climate action
In this podcast series, GBI members, advisors and team members discuss key challenges for companies presented by the integration of human rights due diligence into company climate action. The podcast form part of a suite of GBI resources for companies looking to understand how other companies are working on this nascent area of practice. Access the podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud or play direct below.
Full free access to GBI's climate action and human rights resources here.
Climate episode 1 - Implementing human rights in company climate action
Sophia Arieas, Director at the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights speaks with our COO Jo Reyes about what implementing human rights in company climate action means in practice.
Climate episode 2 - Identifying the risks to people from transition minerals
The risks to people caused by mining the minerals and metals needed to fuel the transition are immense. As part of our discussions to better understand the risks to people in companies’ climate action, we spoke with Norman Mukwakwami, Social Performance Manager for the Africa Region for Trafigura. In this episode, Norman discusses the company's approach to engaging suppliers to identify and mitigate human rights risks associated with the transition.
Climate episode 3 - Practical insights on identifying human rights risks in company climate action
In this episode, Yann Wyss, Global Head - Social Impact and Human Rights at Nestlé, and GBI Director Sophia Areias provide insights into the practicalities and realities of incorporating human rights risks into a company’s climate action.
Climate episode 4 - Practical insights on company climate action and human rights - lessons from Brazil
In partnership with the Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), GBI recorded this podcast exploring what meaningful stakeholder engagement looks like in practice when companies address climate change in Brazil.
The episode brings together Sophia Areias (GBI Director), Clara Serva (Partner, TozziniFreire Advogados and GBI Regional Advisor for Latin America), and Maria Rufino (Technical Analyst, CEBDS) to share insights from GBI’s ongoing webinar series ahead of COP30 in Belém, Brazil.