international law
human rights
the environment
Practices
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Human Rights Impacts Assessments (HRIAs) and preliminary risk screenings. Advice on human rights obligations and HRDD policies. Design and implementation of Environmental and Social Safeguards (ESS) frameworks, mitigation strategies, and monitoring systems. Facilitation of rightsholder-led HRIAs. Rights-based advocacy and strategic planning with communities.
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Design and implementation of Free Prior & Informed Consent (FPIC) processes, alongside community partners. Advice to communities on benefit-sharing agreements, consent agreements, monitoring plans, and other process outputs. Assistance understanding and implementing UNDRIP rights.
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Facilitation of trust-based, support-based human rights work within and between organizations, using custom tools and approaches. Design and implementation of Grievance and Remedy Mechanisms (GRMs), as well as deeper dialogue and mediation work to unlock the information and relationship-building values of conflict.
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Human rights due diligence and design-stage rightsholder engagement for new technology products and programs. Academic and policy work on key tech human rights frameworks. Strategic consulting with communities on integrating technology risks and opportunities with self-determination priorities.
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Work with Indigenous Peoples to articulate and protect their unique rights to culture, including local/traditional ecological and social science, identity markers, histories, designs/expressions, genetic resources, cultural practices, and more. Academic and policy work on critical new cultural rights-based frameworks.
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Integration of human rights and “just transition” equity principles into climate finance mechanisms, including the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM), climate tech initiatives, development finance projects, organizational activities, and community advocacy and action plans.
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Design and facilitation of public fact-finding processes. Independent reviews and internal investigations. Interviewing, evidence collection, documentation, analysis, and compelling report-writing. Crisis communications and media liaison work when appropriate.
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Select representation of human rights defenders facing assaults, criminal charges, retaliatory lawsuits, and other harassment and intimidation triggered by their advocacy. Assistance to organizations concerning their bystander obligations. Assistance drawing attention to this important issue.
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Strategic counseling and select representation on complex issues of international law, provided to communities and organizations in line with our mission to promote a more equitable and inclusive international legal discourse.
About
Aaron Marr Page founded Forum Nobis in 2010 to offer legal representation and rights-based strategic consulting directly to Indigenous peoples, local communities, and community-based rights organizations. Since 2018, Forum Nobis has also worked with select international non-profits, grant-makers, and public interest-focused organizations to help them meet their responsibility to respect human rights under the UN Guiding Principles.
Aaron also teaches human rights, business, and technology law at the University of Iowa College of Law and maintains an active law practice focusing on criminal defense of protestors and human rights defenders, civil rights (race and gender discrimination), and corporate accountability.
Select Recent Engagements
Development of a sector-wide Human Rights Screening Tool, available here, including pilot applications with project teams in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Kenya, Tanzania, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Australia. Ongoing development of a Rightsholder Engagement Tool to accompany the main tool.
Work with leading climate scientists to clarify and provide guidance on the foundational and operational Principles of Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) in a frequently cited article for Nature Communications, available here. This framework, for the first time, includes HRDD and respect for Indigenous self determination as core requirements of NCS.
Work with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and a group of leaders from conservation organizations, funders, rights groups, and local communities, to draft and workshop the Core Human Rights Principles for Private Conservation Organizations and Funders, available here. This document represents the broadest and most authoritative sectoral commitment to the practice of HRDD in the international conservation space.
Staff training on human rights frameworks for coalition of conservation orgs and funders, emphasizing foundational needs of interpersonal trust and organizational support, the role of conflict and nervous system activation, and how HRDD can support “leaning in” to human rights risk rather than looking the other way.
Work with coalition of Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) specialists, major buyers, and climate scientists to promote high integrity scientific support on multiple foundational VCM issues areas, including digital Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV), equitable access and participation, durability, additionality, and more.
Development of a HRDD Dashboard for a major international organization, capable of efficiently logging and tracking indicators in eight HRDD categories across dozens of projects and contractor relationships, integrated into a single interface.
Development of a grievance mechanism development strategy for a conservation organization, emphasizing gradual development over time, relying on existing practices and attuned to time and resource constraints.
Contact
Forum Nobis is a boutique firm and must be very selective about taking on new engagements. Even where we cannot take on a matter, however, we aim to be available to communities and organizations to discuss options generally, make referrals, and contribute to broader coalition efforts.
Please feel free to get in touch using this form or contact us directly at info@forumnobis.com or +1 202 618 2218.