Graham Dunning QC is giving a keynote address at the Environmental Pollution and Small States Conference in London on 7th September 2018. The title of the lecture is “The Bangladesh Accord – a Model for Environmental Dispute Resolution?”. The Accord was agreed following the Rana Plaza disaster which resulted in significant loss of life and personal injury: it is a contract between apparel brands, retailers and importers, on the one hand, and international trade union federations, on the other to improve health and safety standards in garment factories in Bangladesh. It sits almost entirely apart from domestic law and regulation, or public international law. Funded by the private sector, garment industry signatories, it provides for a system of oversight, credible inspections, mandatory remediation, and transparent reporting, with contractual international arbitration as the back-up for disputes. Graham was appointed as arbitrator in relation to two disputes under the Accord, which were administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague and have now been resolved. Read the lecture in full here.
