The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR) will organise an international forum on human rights and business next February.

The forum will discuss a number of topics related to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It will also feature three interactive workshops.

NIHR Secretary-General and chairman of the organising committee of the forum, Dr. Khalifa bin Ali Al-Fadhel, said that through the event, the NIHR aims to contribute to enriching the world human rights field, noting that the topics to be covered include intellectual property on medicine, workers' rights, corporate and businessmen’s responsibility, as well as the right to privacy in relation to information space.

Dr. Al-Fadhel explained that the speakers will include a number of academics, jurists and representatives of national human rights institutions in the Asia-Pacific region, adding that the forum will be the first of its kind in the Kingdom of Bahrain and will be part of the NIHR’s green policy as it will be paperless for the sake of preserving the environment.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which is a set of guidelines for States and companies to prevent and address human rights abuses committed in business operations, was unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011.