Enhancing Judicial Approach to Business and Human Rights Cases in Africa 

Background 

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Judiciaries across Africa are increasingly confronting complex cases involving corporate conduct and human rights violations, including environmental damage, labour exploitation, land rights violations, and community displacement. However, these cases often face significant procedural challenges, including jurisdictional confusion, procedural inconsistency, limited judicial guidance and access to remedy barriers. These challenges stem from overlapping court mandates, insufficient procedural guidance, and knowledge gaps in applying human rights frameworks to business conduct. In addition to providing remedy for affected rightsholders, courts play a crucial in the provision of jurisprudence that fosters clarity around responsibilities to protect human rights and the environment for all stakeholders. Despite the growing number of BHR cases, there has not yet been a coordinated effort to document experiences and facilitate the exchange of best practices to overcome shared challenges.

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Building on initial work conducted in DRC and Kenya, Global Rights Compliance (GRC), Advocates for International Development (A4ID) and UNDP will be convening an inception roundtable at the 4th African Business and Human Rights Forum with judiciary, legal scholars, civil society, and litigators to consult on common case placement challenges. The roundtable will bring legal practitioners from Ghana, Uganda, Zambia, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to discuss how BHR cases have been adjudicated in African courts to date and to identify key procedural barriers and jurisdictional challenges. Through this engagement we aim to strengthen peer-learning and collaboration with wider stakeholder groups including civil society and legal practitioners, to promote a more consistent procedural approaches to BHR cases, reduce inappropriate case transfers thereby creating greater legal certainty. A desired outcome of these engagements will be a Community of Practice dedicated to promoting judicial understanding of business and human rights, including “champions” for some of the key countries facing BHR challenges.This is a timely conversation, given the growing momentum behind landmark Business and Human Rights (BHR) cases in African courts—such as recent rulings on environmental rights and corporate accountability in Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria—as well as the African Union's Policy on Business and Human Rights and the African Commission’s heightened focus on corporate accountability.

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Key Objectives

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• Discussing the role of the judiciary in ensuring corporate accountability in Africa and highlighting how progressive and innovative judicial decisions can play in advancing BHR jurisprudence in Africa.

• Facilitating dialogues on

• Fostering appropriation by participants (judges, lawyers, CSOs, etc.) of their role in promoting the BHR discourse in Africa, in enhancing effective access to remedy for people and environments adversely impacted by business activities, and in sharing legal best practices and ways to effectively support claimants and representative organisations.

• Strengthening collaboration with stakeholder groups (incl. civil society and legal practitioners) to promote consistent procedural approaches to BHR cases, reduce inappropriate case transfers thereby creating greater legal certainty. 

• Identifying “champions” for policy advocacy and legislative reform to institutionalise the UNGPs framework into practical and actionable outcomes for claimants and foster a culture of responsible business in Africa.

 

Guiding Questions

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• What is the role that courts can play in driving discussions on business and human rights in Africa and hold MNCs accountable to violations? What examples can you share of African courts (including in Congolese, Kenyan, Zambian, Ugandan and Ghanaian contexts) successfully applying human rights frameworks to corporate conduct, and what made these cases effective precedents?

• What are common practical and procedural challenges for claimants to bring human rights and environmental cases before courts? How can these claimants and their representative organisations be supported in facing these challenges and accessing remedy?

• Where do you see the biggest knowledge gaps — both for the bench and the bar — in understanding and applying human rights law to corporate behaviour?

• How can regular formats be established that foster the exchange of knowledge and resources between legal practitioners and other relevant stakeholders? Similarly,

• What role should civil society and affected communities play in shaping procedural reforms to make BHR litigation more accessible and effective?

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Expected Outcome

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The session will bring together judges, lawyers, civil society representatives, and legal scholars from across Africa to reflect on the procedural and jurisdictional challenges facing BHR litigation on the continent. Participants will share experiences from different jurisdictions, highlighting both progressive judicial decisions that have advanced BHR jurisprudence and the persistent barriers that continue to hinder access to remedy for affected communities. An immediate outcome of these conversations will be a shared understanding of the judiciary's role in the business and human rights field in Africa, including a comprehensive mapping of challenges, best practices, and priority areas for intervention. On this basis, participants will be able to develop concrete practical and procedural recommendations that apply cross-jurisdictionally.

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Through constructive dialogue, the session will aim to foster a stronger sense of ownership among legal practitioners and civil society actors in shaping BHR adjudication in Africa. A desired outcome of these engagements will be a Community of Practice dedicated to promoting judicial understanding of business and human rights, including “champions” for some of the key countries facing BHR challenges. The aim is to drive and institutionalise ongoing collaboration and knowledge exchange between actors going forward.

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Background to the Discussion

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Discussions about strategies to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in Africa and through an African perspective are developing rapidly. Normative frameworks on business and human rights (BHR) are currently being established at both regional and domestic levels. For instance, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted in 2023 a Resolution on Business and Human Rights in Africa, while the African Union is designing a Policy Framework on Business and Human Rights to act as a roadmap for regulating the impact of business conduct on human rights in Africa and to encourage cohesive implementation of the UNGPs by African states. At the state level, several States are developing National Action Plans (NAP) on BHR to articulate their priorities, implementation strategies and commitments. Kenya was the first country in Africa to develop a NAP in 2019, while Ghana launched its NAP in July 2025. Other countries like Zambia are reportedly developing an NAP. In that growing regulatory context, emphasis is being put on augmenting effective access to remedy for victims of business-related adverse human rights impacts. In it 2023 Resolution, for example, the African Commission recognised “the need for an effective regional framework to prevent and address business-related human rights abuses and ensure access to effective remedy for those affected”.

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Although some regional judicial and non-judicial grievance mechanisms exist or are developing as fora for the resolution of BHR-related disputes (e.g., the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States, the African Development Bank’s Independent Resource Mechanism), at state level, affected stakeholders are still largely unaware of the existence of available routes for remedy. Domestic members of the judiciary, themselves, are only slowly grasping the ins-and-outs of BHR adjudication in a context of ongoing criticism of most African judiciaries as lacking effectiveness, accessibility, fairness and independence.  These challenges have resulted in victims of corporate-related human rights abuse seeking remedy in foreign jurisdictions, leaving few – although increasing – opportunities for domestic courts to hear BHR-related cases. In contexts where domestic courts have been deciding on cases opposing groups or individuals and business entities, the limited information publicly available on these cases suggests a lack of harmonisation between decisions, as well as cases being dismissed for lack of expertise of, often generalist, judges and lawyers.The panel will bring actors together from Ghana, Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to discuss how BHR cases have been adjudicated in African courts to date, identifying key procedural barriers and jurisdictional challenges. The discussion will draw on concrete case studies and experiences of legal experts as well as the work conducted by experts at GRC and A4ID.