Homa – Human Rights and Business

Juiz de Fora, Brazil
Joined March 2021

http://homacdhe.com/

Our objective is to produce qualified knowledge and offer academic-legal advice on violations of Human Rights by business for the Civil Society and the government.

Presence in: Brazil

Focus: Other

Homa was created in 2012 at the Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora – Brazil.

The assemble started from the recognition of an academic and legal gap in the production of qualified knowledge, and in the academic-legal advice to the Civil Society and Government organizations on themes related to the violations of Human Rights by Business, especially when it comes to reaching effective protective measures, and accountability mechanisms for Business and their violations.

We develop research lines around “Human Rights and Business”, informing, raising awareness and training actors of the society on the theme, and we offer academic-legal advice for the cooperation of the organized Civil Society and Government.

For this purpose, our action is supported by other academic entities, organized sectors of the Civil Society and even the State. Having a bigger and closer relation to the testimony of the affected by Human Rights violations.

In that scenario, Homa has been following since 2013 the international agenda on HR and Business, developed at the United Nations, which includes the negotiation of an International Treaty on the theme at The Human Rights Council. The Centre was present in all sessions of negotiation of the binding instrument, as well as in several informal consultations, and ordinary sessions of the Council. Homa is part and advise the “Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity”. In 2017, we were invited as experts on the field to speak to members of the WG at the 3rd Negotiation Session at the UN.

In the national context, Homa is part of a research team called Rede de Pesquisa Rio Doce, acting on the case of the Fundao dam collapse in Mariana, Minas Gerais. The group along with the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights also filed a suit on the case. Besides that network, the Centre also integrates the Brazilian Federal Prosecution Service WG on HR and Business.