2022  |  The African Decade: Shaping the next 10 years of business and human rights

The 2022 ABHR Forum was the first continental gathering on Business and Human Rights in almost a decade. The Forum was convened by the African Union and co-organized together with UNDP, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Working Group on Business and Human Rights (the Working Group) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeiten (GIZ) in close collaboration with local and regional, continental and international actors, such as the African Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA), the Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI), the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the UN Global Compact, the Global Business Initiative, with support from the Governments of Japan, Sweden and Switzerland. 

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The 2022 Forum brought together over 300 in-person and about 500 online participants from more than 96 countries (over 40 African nations were represented online or in-person), including practitioners, experts and representatives of civil society organisations (CSOs), businesses, academia, indigenous communities, media, trade unions, NHRIs and governments. Civil society representatives accounted for almost 40% of the attendees. The three-day event was an opportunity to exchange and hold dialogues, engage in peer-to-peer learning, network and exchange information and positive practices to position business respect for human rights as a priority in Africa. The African Union and the United Nations committed to taking forward a continental platform of peer learning in the years to come, reaffirming its commitment to establishing an annual African Business and Human Rights Forum.