[Report launch] Don’t Buy Into Occupation report presentation

#PartnerEvent

The Geneva Press Club is pleased to welcome the Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO) coalition for the presentation of a report with:

• Pichamon Yeophantong, Chairperson, UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
• Kamil Zabielski, Head of Sustainable Investment, Storebrand Asset Management
• Max Hammer, Human Rights Campaigner, BankTrack

Moderated by Andrew Preston, Senior Advisor, Norwegian People’s Aid

The event has free admission, but please register below to help us prepare for the event. A light lunch will be served from 1.00 pm onwards, with the presentation beginning at 1:30pm. Contact information will be deleted after the event.

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Don’t Buy into Occupation is a coalition of 24 European and Palestinian organisations and trades unions that publish an annual report on financial links between European financial institutions and companies involved in activities that help to maintain the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian territory.

This year, the DBIO coalition has expanded the scope of the report in line with recent major legal determinations issued by international bodies, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the dramatic deterioration in the situation on the ground. The DBIO V report accordingly provides critical insights into the roles and responsibilities of those corporate and financial actors sustaining Israel’s escalating settlement enterprise, its regimes of occupation and apartheid, and its genocidal military campaign in Gaza.

A panel of experts will respond to the report and discuss its implications for the responsible business agenda, including the requirement for heightened due diligence in conflict areas, how well (or not) ESG is working for human rights, and third-party obligations in securing respect for international humanitarian law.

About the speakers

• Pichamon Yeophantong, Chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. Pichamon is Associate Professor and Head of Research at the Centre for Future Defence and National Security, Deakin University. She also leads the Responsible Business Lab and the Environmental Justice and Human Rights Project, which are funded by an Australian Research Council Fellowship. Prior to joining Deakin, Pichamon held academic positions at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Princeton University, and the University of Oxford. She holds a PhD and MA from the Australian National University and a BA from Thammasat University.

• Kamil Zabielski, Head of Sustainable Investment at Storebrand Asset Management. Kamil joined the sustainable investments team in 2021. He worked previously as Head of Sustainability at the Norwegian Export Credit Agency (GIEK), and as advisor at the Council of the Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund – Global. He has a specialization in human rights/labour rights, conducting due diligence of companies, and evaluating environmental and social risks and impacts of projects in a wide range of sectors. He has a LL.M in International Law and M.Phil in Human Rights Law from the University of Oslo.

• Max Hammer, Human Rights Campaigner at BankTrack, the international organisation targeting private sector commercial banks and the activities they finance. Max leads BankTrack’s project work on banks and conflict zones, which challenges banks and financial institutions to respect their human rights responsibilities in situations of armed conflict. Previously, he worked as a legal researcher and served on the leadership team of the Palestine solidarity movement Na’amod. He holds an MPhil from the University of Cambridge and a BSc from the London School of Economics and is based in London.

• Andrew Preston (moderator), Senior Advisor at Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), the Norwegian labour movement’s humanitarian solidarity organisation. Andrew works on “Norwegian links to the occupation”, a collaborative project with the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees – Fagforbundet that works to encourage Norwegian private and public actors to end activity that maintains support for occupation and apartheid in the OPT. Andrew was previously director of the Norwegian Forum for Development and Environment, and is currently on the board of Ethical Trade Norway.