Aruna Kashyap

Human Rights Watch

Associate Director, Economic Justice and Rights Division

Description

Aruna Kashyap is the associate director in the Economic Justice and Rights Division where her work focuses on business and human rights. Before joining the Economic Justice and Rights Division, she worked with the Women's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. Her research and advocacy for the organization has spanned different countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, and Nepal. It has covered diverse topics, ranging from labor rights, social protection, violence against women, and access to health care. She has spearheaded international and regional advocacy for new binding and non-binding international standards governing corporations in the European Union, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the International Labour Organization. Her recent publications for Human Rights Watch include “Obsessed with Audit Tools, Missing the Goal”: Why Social Audits Can’t Fix Labor Rights Abuses in Global Supply Chains and “Paying for a Bus Ticket and Expecting to Fly”: How Apparel Brand Purchasing Practices Drive Labor Abuses. As a lawyer, she has a background in strategic litigation on economic, social, and cultural rights, commercial contracting, and experience with criminal, contractual and tort law frameworks. She sits on the board of Transparentem and the Open Supply Hub. Previously, she litigated in India.