About Us

Business and Human Rights Africa Foundation is a nonprofit organization registered in Kenya and ooperating in various countries to promote, advocate and support the business and human rights agenda in Africa. The Mission of BHR Africa Foundation is to mobilize resources and support organizations in capacity building, peer to peer learning, policy advocacy, legislative reforms, strategic litigation and community engagement towards ensuring human rights based apporach and people centered development that uphold responsible business practices. Our aim is to ensure that businesses, investors and regulators embed respect for human rights in accordance with the United Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the African Union Agenda 2063 (The Africa We Want) which affirm that development should be people driven, inclusive and sustainable, optimizes use of Africa’s resources for the benefit of all Africans and adhare to dictates of good governance democracy justice human rights and rule of law.

As Africa inceasingly take its place in advancing its business and human rights agenda in his Decade of Action on UNGPs, we seek to bring together different stakeholders in the business and human rights arena to share experiences, challenges and opportunities in holding governments and businesses accountable to put the human rights of people, communities and the environment at the forefront of investment due diligence and institutional strategies and operations. This is particularly important with increasing foreign investment and major projects in infrastructure, energy, financial services and technology sectors in Africa. In absence of deliberate and concerted efforts to put people first in the development agenda, many well intended investments in Africa will result in adverse impact on the human rights and dignity of people, communities and environment. This has the potetial of making businesses a threat to rule of law and human rights in Africa. While the primary obligation to ensure protection of human rights lies with the state, businesses cannot turn a blind eye and barely comply with minimum regulatory framework- sometimes in weakly regulated investment environments. That is why the UNGPs although not legally binding provide businesses a framework on important considerations to include in their strategies and operations to ensure they do no sacrifice human dignity human rights and community wellbeing as they pursue profits.  

Leveraging on the global movement towards sustainable development, ESG compliance and growing interest by different stakeholders on their role in supporting the business and human rights agenda, we seek to facilitate dialogues by bringing together various stakeholders to discuss their role and oportunities for collaboration in advancing responsible business in Africa.