The “Inside the ICAR Studio” Speaker Series is an initiative to empower the next generation of advocates, lawyers and campaigners with access to innovators and path-pavers from the human rights, labor rights and environmental justice movement.
Learn from these experts about their career paths, their vision of the world, and how they are working to make human rights, labor rights and environmental justice a reality for all!
This event is open to all ICAR member and partner organizations, including staff, fellows and interns.
Speakers:
Eric Biel, Associate Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs, United States Department of Labor
22 February 2016
Eric Biel joined the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) at the U.S. Department of Labor in February 2012.He is part of ILAB's senior leadership team, working on a diverse set of projects and activities, including supply chain issues across different sectors and submissions under the labor chapters of free trade agreements.
Before joining the Department, Biel was Managing Director for Corporate Responsibility at Burson-Marsteller, a global consulting firm.From 2003-06 he was Deputy Washington Director and Senior Counsel of Human Rights First (formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights). Prior to that he was Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Fontheim International, a Washington consulting and law practice.
Biel served in senior positions at the U.S. Department of Commerce from 1997-2000, including Deputy Undersecretary for Trade Policy and Acting Director of the Office of Policy and Strategic Planning. From 1995-97, he was Director of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, a bipartisan body chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. From 1990-95, he was International Trade Counsel at the Senate Finance Committee, following five years in private law practice.
Since 2008, Biel has taught a course at the Georgetown University Law Center on "Human Rights at the Intersection of Trade and Corporate Responsibility" that explores a range of business and human rights issues. He received a B.A. in history from Johns Hopkins and joint degrees in law from Yale Law School and public policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton.
Arvind Ganesan, Director, Business and Human Rights, Human Rights Watch
21 March 2016
Arvind Ganesan is the director of Human Rights Watch’s Business and Human Rights Division. He leads the organization’s work to expose human rights abuses linked to business and other economic activity, hold institutions accountable, and develop standards to prevent future abuses. This work has included research and advocacy on a wide range of issues including the extractive industries; public and private security providers; international financial institutions; freedom of expression and information through the internet; labor rights; supply chain monitoring and due diligence regimes; corruption; sanctions; and predatory practices against the poor. Ganesan’s work has covered countries such as Angola, Azerbaijan, Burma, China, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, India, Indonesia, the United States, and Nigeria. His recent research has focused on predatory lending practices and governance issues on Native American reservations in the United States. He has written numerous reports, op-eds, and other articles and is widely cited by the media.
Ganesan has also worked to develop industry standards to ensure companies and other institutions respect human rights. He is a founder of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights for the oil, gas, and mining industries and is a founding member of the Global Network Initiative (GNI) for the internet and telecommunications industries, where he also serves on the board. Ganesan has helped to develop standards for international financial institutions such as the World Bank, and regularly engages governments in an effort to develop mandatory rules or strengthen existing standards such as the Kimberley Process. He serves on the board of EGJustice, a nongovernmental organization that promotes good governance in Equatorial Guinea, and is a member of the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR)’s steering committee.
Before joining Human Rights Watch, Ganesan worked as a medical researcher. He attended the University of Oklahoma.
Ellen Dorsey, Executive Director, Wallace Global Fund
Ellen Dorsey is an impassioned advocate for international human rights and environmental sustainability. Since 2008, she has served as executive director of the Wallace Global Fund. Under her leadership, the Fund adopted a new approach integrating grant making and investment strategies to promote its mission. Ellen came to the Fund from the Heinz Endowments, where she was the senior program officer in the Environment Program. She previously served as Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Institute and Associate Professor at Chatham University and founded the Human Rights and Environment Program of Amnesty International.
She has served on the board of numerous non-profit organizations, including the US Human Rights Network, Global Initiative on Economic and Social Rights, Shared Interest and Amnesty International USA, where she was Chair of the Board of Directors.
Her educational career includes a doctorate in political science from the University of Pittsburgh and a Fulbright Fellowship in South Africa during that country’s historic transformation from Apartheid. She has lectured and written extensively in books, journals and new media outlets on the topic of contemporary social movements and effective strategies of non-governmental organizations. Most recently, Dorsey co-authored, along with Paul J. Nelson, New Rights Advocacy: Changing Strategies of Development and Human Rights NGOs, published by Georgetown University Press.
Registration: This event is open to all ICAR member and partner organizations, including staff, fellows and interns. Follow the link below to register
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