Concept Note
THE AFRICAN BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM AT FIVE
Realizing the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment through Responsible Business Conduct
Background
The fifth anniversary of the Africa Business and Human Rights Forum marks a significant milestone in the continent's journey towards embedding human rights within corporate activities. This year's theme on ‘Realizing the Right to a Clean, Healthy and Sustainable Environment through Responsible Business Conduct’ underscores the growing recognition of the interconnectedness between business activities, environmental integrity, and the fundamental rights of communities in Africa. It is a critical moment to not only celebrate the progress made, including the progressive Nairobi Declaration that strives to enhance accountability and regional cooperation, but also to examine the persistent challenges. Despite its vast natural resource wealth, Africa loses an estimated USD 195 billion annually due to environmental degradation, illicit financial flows, and unsustainable resource use.
Africa has made notable progress in advancing the Business and Human Rights (BHR) agenda, marked by the increasing adoption of National Action Plans (NAPs) to integrate the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), the regionally internationally-accepted framework for enhancing standards and practices with regard to business and human rights, into policy frameworks. To date, five countries have adopted NAPs (Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia and Ghana), while many others are in various stages of development (Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Djibouti, Zambia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo). At the regional level, the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the draft AU Principles and Guidelines on BHR, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Resolution on BHR, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement have paved way for coherent policy approaches and action. Collectively, these instruments have contributed to strengthened regulation, enhanced stakeholder engagement platforms, and growing corporate commitments to responsible business conduct. In this context, the regional Africa BHR Forum has played a catalytic role, including to promote a coherent approach for States and businesses to UNGPs implementation across the continent.
Across Africa, business sectors such as extractives, agribusiness, manufacturing, infrastructure and digital technology are vital for economic growth. Sub‑Saharan Africa’s GDP growth is projected to rise from 3.3% (2024) to ~4.3% by 2026–27 (World Bank). Extractives remain a major driver of export revenues and foreign investment across African economies. For example, Mining exploration spending reached about $1.27 billion in 2023, showing continued investor interest. Agribusiness is the backbone of livelihoods and a key area for productivity-led growth. It accounts for 40 to 50% of employment on the continent. Digital technology is one of the fastest-growing sectors and a key enabler across all industries. Africa’s digital economy grew from 1.1% of GDP (2012) to ~5.2% by 2025, with projections of 8.5% by 2050.
However, these sectors are also associated with significant environmental degradation and business-related human rights abuses, including through the destruction of nature, exacerbating the adverse impacts of climate change, and contributing to land, air and water pollution. The recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment by both the United Nations Human Rights Council and General Assembly, further reaffirmed by the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Climate Change, has forced deeper discussions on the interconnectedness of environmental and human rights protection at regional and national levels. For Africa, over 45 African nations explicitly recognize the right to a Healthy environment in their constitutions or national legislation, with further recognition of the right to a “generally satisfactory environment” in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The question for Africa is not ‘if’ the right to a healthy environment is a recognized right, but ‘how’ it is operationalized in key areas, including for the business and human rights agenda accelerating throughout the region. It is critical to consider how to enhance corporate human rights and environmental due diligence in an integrated manner, strengthen accountability frameworks, and ensure access to effective remedy for affected rights-holders.
As the regional Africa BHR Forum commemorates its fifth anniversary, it coincides with the African Union’s theme of the year 2026 “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063.” This theme emphasizes the importance of empowering States and business leaders to ensure economic growth, job creation, and industrialization is compatible with the protection of and respect for human rights and the environment , and highlights the Forum’s crucial role as a unique platform to address these complex and interconnected issues, fostering dialogue and collaboration among governments, businesses, civil society, and affected communities to enhance corporate due diligence practices and develop robust accountability frameworks.
By aligning the 2026 Africa Forum’s theme with the one of the 2026 African Union'2026, the draft African Union Principles and Guidelines on BHR, The African Union Agenda 2063, , and key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 6, 7, 12, 13, 15, and 15), the 2026 regional Africa BHR Forum aims to translate the right to a healthy environment into concrete, actionable steps for responsible business conduct. This proactive approach seeks not only to prevent and mitigate harm, but also to champion business models that contribute positively to environmental action and the well-being of all rights-holders.
Objectives
Review progress in advancing the effective implementation of the UNGPs in Africa over the past five years, including through policy, legislation, and practice developments.
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Assess business impacts on the right to a healthy environment, with particular attention to substantive elements such as safe and sufficient water, healthy environment, and safe climate.
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Strengthen investors corporate accountability and responsible business conduct by promoting effective integrated human rights and environmental due diligence.
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Advance access to remedy, including the procedural elements of the right to a healthy environment, and identify priority actions to accelerate implementation of BHR commitments in alignment with Agenda 2063 and the SDGs.
Focus Areas
The 5th Anniversary Forum will delve into four pivotal focus areas, designed to address the most pressing challenges and opportunities in advancing the right to a healthy environment among other internationally recognized human rights through responsible business conduct across Africa. These areas are interconnected, reflecting a holistic approach to sustainable development and human well-being.
Human rights and environmental due diligence
This focus area emphasizes the critical importance of companies to carry out human rights due diligence and environmental due diligence in an integrated manner.
Implementation of the requires that human rights due diligence should cover adverse impacts on all human rights, which include those resulting from environmental harms (e.g., impacts of business-related water pollution on access to safe and sufficient water or deforestation on access to healthy and sustainable food).
Moreover, following the recognition of a healthy environment as a human right, human rights due diligence should now address adverse impacts on this human right.
In this context, human rights due diligence should integrate environmental dimensions to identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how companies address adverse human rights impacts resulting from environmental harms, including on the right to a healthy environment.
Safe water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and land rights
This area assesses business-related adverse impacts on access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, as well as land rights. Special attention will be given to the disproportionate effects of human rights impacts resulting from environmental harms on women and other rights-holders at heightened risk of vulnerability and marginalization, taking into account intersecting identities. Discussions will aim to develop strategies for securing equitable access to these essential resources and protecting community livelihoods
Just transition and human rights
Exploring the concept of a Just Transition, means balancing economic development with climate commitments under the African Union Agenda 2063 and SDG 13. The just energy transition is critical to meet the global climate commitment under the Paris Agreement. Given that Africa holds approximately 30 per cent of the world’s known critical mineral reserves, which are essential for green energy technologies, African countries play a central role in driving the transition away from fossil fuels. This focus area will also examine how Africa can collectively shift toward green economies in a fair and inclusive way, ensuring that no communities or workers are left behind. The aim is to champion business models that actively prioritize equity, climate justice, social justice, inclusion and just transition processes that drive mitigation, enable adaptation and build climate-resilient development.
Access to remedy for affected and vulnerable groups
This final focus area is dedicated to centering remedy and affected groups in BHR dialogue and decision-making. It aims to advance effective redress mechanisms for victims of business-related human rights abuses to seek remedy. Key discussions on a treaty for environmental rights for Africa guaranteeing access to justice and information in environmental matters presents a unique opportunity for the region. The Forum will identify priority actions to accelerate the implementation of BHR commitments, ensuring that the voices and needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups, as well as those at heightened risk and affected stakeholders are heard and addressed.
Format and Content
The 2026 African BHR Forum will be a hybrid event, combining in-person and virtual participants over three days (October 2026) to maximize participation and will feature:
Day 1 | 29 September
Panel discussions, trainings, clinics and interactive breakout sessions
Keynote addresses by African leaders, international actors and BHR experts, offering strategic insights into the current state of play and pathways to solutions.
Thematic discussions and trainings around this year’s theme to enhance stakeholder engagement around specific topics and foster collaboration. This includes sessions hosted by regional organisations, civil society and National Human Rights Institutions to deepen stakeholder engagement.
Day 2 | 30 September
Panel discussions, trainings, clinics and interactive breakout sessions
Thematic discussions and trainings around this year’s theme to enhance stakeholder engagement around specific topics and foster collaboration. This includes sessions hosted by regional organisations, civil society and National Human Rights Institutions to deepen stakeholder engagement.
Day 3 | 1 October
Panel discussions, trainings, clinics and interactive breakout sessions
Thematic discussions and trainings around this year’s theme to enhance stakeholder engagement around specific topics and foster collaboration. This includes sessions hosted by regional organisations, civil society and National Human Rights Institutions to deepen stakeholder engagement.
All Days | Showcases
Exhibitions, book stands and movies/documentaries screenings
Languages
The Forum will be held in English with simultaneous interpretation in French.