On 8 October 2025, the FGV Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, co-funded by the European Union under the Erasmus+ programme, in partnership with the FGV Centre for Global Law, was honored to welcome Prof. María Carmelina Londoño, Professor at Universidad de La Sabana. The class was part of the third edition of the Rio School on Global Governance, Democracy and Human Rights.

Prof. Londoño opened the class with an interactive activity with the students, which propelled an enriching discussion based on the group’s understanding of concepts related to Business & Human Rights. Then, she presented the three UN guiding pillars on Business & Human Rights: the “protect, respect and remedy” framework. Although States have a duty to protect rights, businesses also have evolving responsibilities, as companies are under the obligation to avoid causing human rights impacts.

The lecture also brought attention to the responsibility of states for human rights violations by private businesses. The state’s conduct must be challenged, even if it is not the one directly violating the rights of victims. In particular, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has an established case law on the topic. From 2001 to 2015, it dealt with business abuses due to states’ failure to comply with due diligence standards, but, since 2015, it Court has been creating more awareness of the responsibility of businesses in such abuses. The rule of law ensures prevention, but in Latin America it is not as strong as it should be, so the number of cases of human rights abuses caused by private businesses is rising due to this structural weakness.

We sincerely thank Prof. María Carmelina Londoño for this informative class.