IBLF Global delivers a speech at the Ombudsman Conference Azerbaijan

23 June 2023

As we enter into a new era of integrity, it is widely recognised the interconnectedness among anti-corruption, human rights, environmental issues and other pivotal orgaisational facets. Within this evolving landscape, Brook Horowitz, CEO of IBLF Global, delivered a speech entitled “Doing business with integrity: new approaches for the private sector to combat corruption and protect human rights” at the Conference themed “Ensuring Transparency in the Context of Business and Human Rights”. This conference was jointly hosted by the Human Right Commissioner (Ombudsman), the Antı-Corruption General Directorate and the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Azerbaijan. 

The starting point of Brook’s presentation is the new laws coming out in Europe along the lines of the new German Supply Chain Act which makes companies liable for due diligence of their suppliers’ human rights record. The new legislation is challenging companies to manage the traditional challenge of anti-corruption compliance, and the new challenge presented by new human rights due diligence legislation.

How companies can efficiently integrate their approaches to protecting their operations, people, supply chains and broader stakeholders from harm caused by environmental damage, human rights abuses, and corruption and bribery, is crucial. Without an efficient and effective integration strategy, doing business will become more complex, more costly, and, as has been demonstrated in a large number of legal cases against corporations, riskier from a reputational, legal, and financial perspective. 

Brook also cited some examples of how leading companies are already beginning to introduce, in an integrated fashion, new assessment tools, preventative measures, alert systems and reporting into their policies and practices to cover all legal risks. They are investing in new technologies such as AI to capture and even predict outlier behaviors. The functions of the compliance department and general counsel are being rethought in order to build a culture both within the company and beyond it, in their broader supply chains, and re-oriented towards agility, due diligence, and a proactive response to the new risks.