Lecturer
Responsible Business | Center for Responsible Business


About

Faris Natour is an internationally recognized expert with over 15 years of experience working at the intersection of business and human rights. Natour leads the Human Rights and Business Initiative at the Center for Responsible Business at Berkeley Haas, where he teaches courses on business and human rights and drives research and collaboration among business and stakeholders to address critical human rights challenges.  As Principal of Article One, he advises corporate and institutional clients across sectors and regions on human rights strategy and management with the aim of embedding human rights throughout business and institutional operations.

Natour focuses on developing and implementing corporate human rights strategies through due diligence, training, engagement, and research.  He has played a leading role in developing and implementing human rights strategies at companies such as Microsoft, Gap, Barrick, Johnson & Johnson, Best Buy, Hasbro, PepsiCo, Rio Tinto, Target, and Visa.  Faris has led corporate human rights projects in many countries, including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Guatemala, Japan, Myanmar, Norway, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, the U.K and the U.S.

Before co-founding Article One, Natour spent 10 years at Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), where he led BSR’s global human rights practice as Managing Director.  In addition to advising companies on human rights strategy and management systems, he established and led the BSR Human Rights Working Group, a group of over 30 multinational companies collaborating on implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.  Natour has also worked at Calvert Investments, where he was responsible for investment analysis of corporate human rights performance. A German national, he has also worked at Human Rights Watch and at the European Commission Delegation in Washington, D.C.

Natour has partnered with and advised a wide range of government agencies, multi-lateral institutions, and international organizations, including UN OCHA, the UN Global Compact, the U.S. State Department, the OECD US National Contact Point, the World Bank Group, and USAID.

He received an LLM in International Law with highest honors from George Washington University Law School, and a law degree from Universitaet Regensburg, Germany.  He is a member of the OECD US National Contact Point’s Stakeholder Advisory Board, and the Advisory Panel for the Business and Human Rights Journal (Cambridge University Press).

Expertise and Research Interests

  • Corporate human rights strategies
  • Human rights