Elizabeth Umlas (she, her, hers)

Senior Fellow

Work:

+41 22 367 1809

Mobile:

+41 78 865 8538

Email:

liz@croataninstitute.org

Elizabeth Umlas is a senior fellow at Croatan Institute. A political scientist by training, she is an independent researcher and consultant with over 20 years of experience in the field of business and human rights.  Liz’s projects are international in scope and her clients have included UN organizations, international NGOs and academic institutions in Europe. She is currently senior advisor on capital stewardship to a global union federation in Switzerland. In her work with global unions, she has spearheaded investor engagement as a key leverage point in changing corporate behavior in relation to workers’ fundamental rights. Liz is a dual national (American and Swiss) and has been based in Switzerland since 2004.

In addition to working with Croatan Institute, Umlas teaches business and human rights at Oxford University and the University of Fribourg. From 2001 to 2007, she was senior research analyst for human rights at KLD Research & Analytics, a leading socially responsible investment (SRI) research firm in Boston. Her work there involved overseeing KLD’s human rights research. Prior to KLD, she was manager of policy research at Oxfam America and before that, a program officer and consultant for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Her recent research examines the “B Corporation” (benefit corporation) and business and human rights movements, the scope for collaboration between the two and the implications for holding corporations accountable for their impacts on human rights. Liz is a member of the international advisory board of the NGO Media Matters for Women, a  co-founder of Sustainable Finance Geneva and a member of the Amnesty Business Group of Switzerland.

Education

M.A., Animal Law & Society, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona

Ph.D., Political Science, Yale University

M.A., Political Science, Yale University

B.A., Harvard University

languages

Spanish, French

Other Publications

“Business and Human Rights in Switzerland – Investors Perspective,” NOVA Knowledge Centre for Business, Human Rights and the Environment, February 2021.  

Bourke Martignoni, J. and Umlas, E., “Gender-responsive Due Diligence for Business Actors: Human Rights-based Approaches,” Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Academy Briefing No. 12, December 2018.

Sustainability Reporting on Children’s Rights.” UNICEF CSR Working Paper, December 2012. 

Protected but Exposed: Multinational Corporations’ Use of Private Security.” Small Arms Survey 2011: States of Security, Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Investing in the Workforce: Social Investors and International Labor Standards.” ILO Working Paper, 2009. 

Human Rights and SRI in North America: An Overview.” Paper prepared to inform the mandate of Professor John Ruggie, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on business and human rights, January 2009.

“The Global Expansion of SRI: Facing Challenges, Meeting Potential.” Development and Change, vol. 39, no. 6 (November 2008).