Business and Society Exploring Solutions

A dispute resolution community

An initiative of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Business and Human Rights

ACR Members,

We would like to invite you to be a part of BASESwiki (www.baseswiki.org), a new global online community focused on dispute resolution between companies and their stakeholders in society.  BASESwiki is an initiative of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Business and Human Rights, Prof. John Ruggie.  It is being developed by the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative of the Harvard Kennedy School in partnership with the International Bar Association, and with the support of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman of the World Bank Group and the JAMS Foundation.

This online community aims to support the use and improvement of non-judicial grievance mechanisms around the world by providing information on:

Ø  The regulatory and institutional context for ADR in different countries;

Ø  Grievance mechanisms that already exist and feedback on their effectiveness;

Ø  Experts in the dispute resolution field;

Ø  Case studies of dispute resolution processes and outcomes; 

Ø  Relevant research and analysis;

By registering at www.baseswiki.org you can add or edit information as well as participate in discussions. Your contributions will be invaluable in helping us build this unique resource.  Just as important, your involvement will bring you new benefits and opportunities:  

Ø  BASESwiki is a gateway from which you will be able to draw information about the processes, expertise, and research around the world on business-to-society disputes;

Ø  You can post your own profile and/or that of a relevant organization to promote your identification and facilitate contact with other users of the site;

Ø  In turn, you will find other experts and organizations with which you might wish to partner or collaborate;

Ø  You will find interesting and relevant research from around the world;

Ø  On our new community portal you will be able to post and locate events, training opportunities and other useful dates, as well as engage in discussion threads on topics of interest;

Ø  BASESwiki is currently accessible in five languages (Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish) and is shortly launching in Arabic, Japanese and Korean, making the content available to a wide range of global users.

We look forward to working with you toward improving dispute resolution between companies and their stakeholders.  The site is still in development so all comments on making it more user-friendly and better tailoring it to your needs are welcome.  Please contact us with any questions.

Best Regards,

Jason A. Waxman    bases@baseswiki.org">bases@baseswiki.org      

BASESwiki Project Team, Mediation Research