Foreign Ministry launches open course on business and human rights

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has published an online course Business and Human Rights, which is open to everyone.

The course focuses on human rights related to business activity and on what businesses should do about them. The course was originally designed for central government officials but has now been made available to everyone due to a high demand. Anyone can take the course to get a broad overview of the topic.

The course is in English, and it is available on the central government’s learning platform eOppiva. The course is divided into a 45-minute introductory course and a practitioner course comprising five 20-minute modules.

The European Union adopted the Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence in May. In addition to the legal aspects, many people may be interested to learn about human rights related to business activity. The key is how businesses manage human rights impacts arising from their own activities and from those of their business partners and value chains. Businesses should identify key risks relating to human rights and take measures to prevent and stop them. These may be a hidden risk of child labour in the value chain or restrictions placed on the freedom of association by a production facility in another country.

The online course helps to identify human rights risks and describes ways to respond to them. The practitioner course covers themes such as operation in a conflict-affected area and gender equality.

In the video below, Annamari Tornikoski and Linda Piirto tell about the creation and content of the course.