Janelle M. Diller, J.D.

Practice Experience

Janelle Diller concentrates her practice on international aspects of social and environmental governance, focusing on labour and human rights compliance in international trade and investment, business operations, labour migration and supply chains. She offers services to government, business and trade associations and NGOs, providing guidance as a virtual in-house counsel in domestic and international contexts on internal procedures to manage contractual, regulatory, and compliance issues in international business operations, negotiating contracts and other legal transactions and mobilizing multi-stakeholder partnerships to prevent or mitigate social risks and remedy harm in supply chain operations.   She has 30 years of experience in legal counselling, transactional representation, litigation, and legislative and regulatory drafting and compliance mechanisms at international and domestic levels for public and private sector organizations.  

Dr. Diller has served as legal counsel to the International Labour Organization (ILO) where she represented and advised the ILO and its Members on the drafting and application of ILO norms, particularly in global industry contexts, and instigated their use in human rights and trade-related contexts and in ISO and private industry standards. She has boosted the role of labour in global cooperation for development, trade, investment, migration, and business responsibility by negotiating cooperation agreements with UN agencies, the World Bank and OECD and other international organizations. Her lead in designing public private partnerships with businesses, unions and NGOs includes the successful innovation of a US$30 million Arrangement among global and local actors for remediation of 3600+ worker injuries and deaths from a global supply chain accident in Bangladesh.  Dr. Diller has worked extensively in Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America with businesses, governments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations on various international labour, trade and investment, and human rights issues. 

Janelle has served as an international legal expert facilitating ground-breaking advances in global law and practice by her analyses of the social effects of foreign investment across 100 countries, the content and implementation of 215+ business initiatives relating to labour standards, policies on migrants' rights in more than 50 national contexts of irregular situations of cross-border labour as well as forced labour practices in countries with privatized prisons.  Her documentation of forced and child labour and other rights risks in national and supply chain contexts has led to legal and policy reforms.  She provided international law guidance to the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization and co-authored the UN analysis of international human rights law leading to the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.  She also served for several years as Legal Director to the International Human Rights Law Group in Washington, D.C. where she successfully advocated for fewer reservations upon US ratification of international treaties  on civil and political rights and race discrimination, instigated the use of human rights law in emerging democracies' constitutional and statutory reforms, and appeared in human rights cases before UN bodies, and Inter-American and US courts. 

In addition to her work as a lawyer, Janelle has taught in international law as the Paul Martin Sr. Professor of International Affairs and Law at the University of Windsor (Canada) and at the University of St. Thomas (Minneapolis).  She has also taught as Senior Lecturer at the University of Bern (Switzerland), and the University of Virginia, and as Adjunct Professor at Georgetown, George Washington and other US law schools. Her recent appointments include a Fulbright Research Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice and a Max Planck Scholar post at the Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public and International Law (Heidelberg).  She has published widely on international labour and human rights issues in business and trade contexts, including a book featured by the United Nations Library as one of six English Research Guides in English to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.   

Education

J.D. cum laude, Georgetown University Law Center, 1984.

M.A. summa cum laude (equivalent), Journalism, Syracuse University, 1979.

B.A. magna cum laude, Wheaton College, 1977.

Languages

English, French, Spanish

Recent Cases 2018-to date

• Fostered global cooperation in garment industry by aiding NGOs and unions to work with employers and governments to jointly identify and mitigate adverse effects of COVID-19 in seven priority countries.
• Advocated industry compliance with occupational safety and health principles of the International Labour Organization, a UN specialized agency of 180+ members, by analysing ISO 46001 provision
• Influenced global practices on how to respect migrants' rights while preventing irregular situations of cross-border labour by authoring a compendium analysing evidence-based data from 90+ countries.
• Facilitated national bar association in launching labour rights program by proposing a strategic plan and by training and multi-stakeholder collaboration on freedom of association and labour migrants' rights.

Recent Research Projects

Risk or problem?  Regulating rights in global value chains, 2020 to present

The Graduate Institute, Geneva (IHEID)

Investigation of the role of risk-based and problem-centred approaches to human rights due diligence in global market transactions.   

Transnational governance for human rights and social justice, 2018 to date

Fulbright Canada Program; Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public & International Law 

Examination of the State’s role in regulatory cooperation and dialogue with private actors to govern human rights due diligence in global value.  Article and workshop.

Contextualizing Social Justice in International and Transnational Law

U. Windsor Law, British Institute of International Law

Analysis of social justice as a meta-principle to adjust bias in international law on labour, trade, finance, investment, development and refugee law. Based on a Call for Papers, Research Workshop and Canadian Council of International Law faculty panel. 

Selected Expert Testimony

UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Day of General Discussion, 21 Feb. 2017, ILO Comments for General Comment on State Obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Context of Business Activities: presentation on relationship of ILO standards and means of action to States' Covenant obligations relating to business activities.

International Labour Conference 101^st Session, Geneva, June 2012, Opinion of the Conference Legal Adviser paras 198-203 - International legal status of fundamental principles and rights at work as human rights.

U.S. Ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, with response by Rep. Kweisi Mfume, Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, in "International Treaties on Human Rights: Time to Ratify," U.S. Congress House of Representatives seminar sponsored by Rep. John J. LaFalce, July 1993 - legal issues to address in US ratification of UN Race Convention.

Record of Cases - to 2017

International Tribunals

Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization, 2005-2014 defending the ILO as employer in appeals from internal decisions.

Forced Labour in Myanmar (Burma), Report of the Commission of Inquiry appointed under article 26 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization to examine the observance by Myanmar of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29), Geneva, 1998, Documented evidence of forced labour (App. I) for complaint leading to independent Commission of Inquiry

Blake Case, Preliminary Exceptions, Judgment of July 2, 1996, Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Ser. C) No. 27 (1996), reprinted in 1996 Annual Report IACHR [97], OEA/Ser.L/V/III.35, doc. 4 (1997): Co-counsel in first Court case von behalf of a US citizen. 

Report No. 5/95, Case 11.219 (Guatemala), Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, OEA/Ser.L/V/11.88, Doc. 17 (February 15, 1995). Co-counsel to family of disappeared US journalist in Guatemala. 

Raquel Martín de Mejía v. Perú, Case 10.970, Report No. 5/96, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.91 Doc. 7 at 157 (1996).  First recognition of State-sponsored rape as a violation of article 11 of the American Convention on Human Rights.

U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (United States of America) concerning 192 Haitian Detainees subject to Administrative Detention at Guantanamo Bay, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1994/27 (1993) para. 15.  Co-authored petition for on-site visit by UN to HIV-infected detained Haitian asylum seekers.  

U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Decision No. 48/1993 (United States of America) concerning Humberto Alvarez Machaín, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1994/27 (1993) pp. 135-140. Extraterritorial kidnapping of foreign national by US government agents is arbitrary detention.

UNESCO Committee on Conventions and Recommendations under its 104 EX/Decision 3.3 procedure. Sought release of 20 detainees in confidential communications in cases involving 10 countries.  

Amicus Curiae Representation

Note:  Representative of amicus curiae International Human Rights Law Group in:

Abebe-Jiri v. Negewo, 72 F.3d 844 (11th Cir. 1996) -  arguing that Alien Tort Statute provides jurisdiction for common law remedies for violations of customary international law 

Jaffe v. Snow, 114 S.Ct. 2724 (1994) - arguing extraterritorial abduction by US private actors violated law of nations as part of US law, and Court should uphold foreign judgement for damages 

Sale v. Haitian Centers Council, Inc., 113 S.Ct. 2549 (1993) – arguing that rule of non-refoulement in international refugee treaty law was a US obligation and should bar US return of Haitians

Saudi Arabia v. Nelson, 113 S.Ct. 1471 (1993) – arguing to lift immunity for state-sponsored torture under commercial exception to Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act

United States v. Alvarez-Machain, 112 S.Ct. 2188 (1992) - arguing customary international law prohibited extraterritorial abduction 

INS v. Doherty, 112 S.Ct. 719 (1992) – arguing that alien had right to be heard on claim for political asylum before extradition

Haitian Centers Council, Inc. v. McNary, 969 F.2d 1326 (2d Cir. 1992) - arguing that aliens detained at US Naval Base on Guantanamo had constitutional due process rights

Linder v. Calero-Portocarrero, 963 F.2d 332 (11th Cir. 1992) – arguing federal jurisdiction under 28 USC sec. 1331to hear claim of US citizen for violations of customary international law abroad

EEOC v. Arabian-American Oil Co., 111 S. Ct. 1227 (1991) – arguing extraterritorial application of equal employment rights to US employees of MNEs abroad under Title VII of Civil Rights Act

Exceptions to the Exhaustion of Domestic Remedies, Advisory Opinion OC-11/90, Inter-American Court on Human Rights (Ser. A) No. 11 (1990) – arguing futility exception to exhaustion of domestic remedies for inability to pay for counsel and general fear in legal community

National courts and administrative tribunals

Parola v. Weinberger, 848 F.2d 956 (9th Cir. 1988) - unprecedented ruling that Federal military bases in municipality must comply with municipal not Federal procurement rules for waste collection.

Co-representation with Boase and Cohen, Hong Kong solicitors, of 15 cases of Vietnamese asylum seekers on appeals that reversed Hong Kong Immigration Service denials of refugee status 

Books 

Securing Dignity and Freedom with Human Rights: Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Nijhoff/Brill, 2012) on-line version – featured by the United Nations Library as one of six English Research Guides for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 

Articles

The role of the State in the exercise of transnational public and private authority over labour standards,  International Organizations Law Review, 17:1 (2020) 41-74 on-line link

Economic, social and cultural human rights: the journey towards peremptory norms in international law, Nordic Journal of Human Rights 36:1 (2018) 19-37 download paper

International Labour Law and the Challenge of Pluralism in the International Order, Manchester Journal of International Economic Law 10:2 (2013) 128-147 download paper

Private Standardization in Public International Lawmaking, 33 Michigan Journal of International Law 481-536 (2012) download paper

A social conscience in the global marketplace: labour dimensions of codes of conduct, social labelling and investor initiatives, International Labour Review 138:2 (1999) 99-129 download paper  (Fr) (Sp)

Child Labor and Trade: Toward a Harmonization of International Law, American Journal of International Law 91:4 (1997) 663-696 (with David A. Levy) download paper, reprinted in Barbara Stark, Human Rights and Children (E. Elgar, 2016) 

Constitutional Reform in a Repressive State: The Case of Burma, XXXIII Asian Survey 33:4 (1993) 393-407 download paper 

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Multinational Enterprise, 73 Georgetown Law Journal (1985) 1465-98 download paper (US employment law and investment treaties in the US and abroad)

Book chapters

Multi-stakeholder schemes, work, and the law in G. Davidov et al., Oxford Handbook of the law of work (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

Protecting the Vulnerable: Migration, Work, and Rights in K. Elliott, Handbook on Globalisation and Labour Standards  (Edward Elgar, March 2022) Top 10 SSRN list

Responsibility of the United Nations, chapter 14 in The Rule of Law and Its Application to the United Nations, C. Feinaugle, ed. Studies of MPI Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law vol 6 225-68 (Oxford, Hart Publishing, Nomos 2016) download paper

Pluralism and privatisation in transnational labour law: the International Labour Organization experience, in Research Handbook on Transnational Labour Law 329-342 (A. Blackett and A. Trebilcock, eds. Edward Elgar Research Handbook Series, 2015) download paper

Social Justice, Rights, and the International Labour Movement, in Oxford Handbook of International Human Rights Law (D. Shelton, ed., Oxford University Press, 2013)

Taking account of human values in the international economic order: the role and contribution of the Legal Counsel, in International Economic Organizations and Law (A. Qureshi and X. Gao, eds., Kluwer, 2012) download paper 

Trade and Labour II, in McCrory, P. and Appleton, A., eds., The World Trade Organization: Legal, Economic and Political Analysis, Vol. II, chap. 60, 597-621(Springer 2005) download paper 

Globalization, values, and international law in the world of work, in Les normes internationales du travail: un patrimoine pour l’avenir, 645- 657 (ILO, 2004) download paper 

UN Sanctions: The ILO Experience, in Gowland-Debbas, V., ed., United Nations Sanctions and International Law,  Proceedings of Colloquium on UN Sanctions and International Law, Geneva, 197-204 (Kluwer Law International, 2001) 

Social conduct in transnational enterprise operations: the role of the International Labour Organization, in Blanpain, R., ed., Multinational Enterprises and the Social Challenges of the XXIst Century, 17-28 (Kluwer Law, 2000) download paper

The National Convention in Burma (Myanmar) in Carey, P., ed., Burma: The Challenge of Change in a Divided Society (Macmillan 1997)

Constitutional Reform in a Repressive State: The Case of Burma, in 33:4 Asian Survey 393-407 (University of California Press, 1993) download paper

Published Conference Proceedings 

Three Challenges Facing International Labour Law, in Proceedings of 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law (2007) download paper

On the Possibilities and Limitations of NGO Participation in International Law: Corporate Applications, Proceedings of 95^th Annual Meeting of the American Soc. of International Law (2001) download paper

Selected Institutional Reports 

Protecting the rights of migrant workers in an irregular situation and addressing irregular labour migration: A Compendium, International Labour Office, Geneva (18 December 2021) (lead author as consultant)

Global survey on the effect given the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, ILO GB.280/MNE/1/1 (2001) (lead author) – led to ILO policy recommendations for responsible foreign direct investment for governments, business, and unions

Overview of global developments concerning codes of conduct, social labelling and other private sector initiatives addressing labour issues, ILO GB.273/WP/SDL/1(Rev.1) (1998) (lead author) – led to ILO policy and programme for research and training on corporate social responsibility

Internally displaced persons: compilation and analysis of legal norms, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1996/52/Add.2 (1995) Report of the Representative of the Secretary-General on Internally Displaced Persons, with W Kälin, R Goldman, and C Meijer as a basis for UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement 

Criminalizing Parliamentary Speech in Turkey, Report of the Law Group Delegation to Turkey on the Detention of Parliamentarians and the Proceedings to Ban the Democracy Party (DEP), (International Human Rights Law Group, May 1994) (lead author)

CIREFCA: At the Crossroads between Uprooted People and Development in Central America, US Comm’n for Study of Int’l Migration & Development (US GPO 1990) (with Dennis Gallagher)

Protecting Internally Displaced Persons: A Manual for Law and Policymakers (Brookings Institution, University of Bern, 2008), Employment, Economic Activities and Social Protection chapter –upon request of UNSG’s Special Representative on Internally Displaced Persons

A Fair Globalization: Creating Opportunities for All, Report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization (International Labour Organization 2004) - international law inputs 

In the National Interest: 1996 Quadrennial Report on Human Rights and US Foreign Policy (Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, 1996) – provided substantive texts on peacekeeping as consultant

Ethiopia in Transition: A Report on the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (International Human Rights Law Group (IHRLG),1994) - led fieldwork and report on civil, customary, and Sharia law systems

U.S. Ratification of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (IHRLG 1994) - guided legal analysis of US Federal and state law and practice with treaty requirements; successfully advocated against reservations on de facto discriminatory effect and affirmative action 

Ratification of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by the United States (IHRLG, 1991) - guided pro bono team in legal analysis comparing US Federal and state law and practice with treaty requirements; served as basis for US Senate testimony, November 21, 1991

Towards a New Constitution of Nepal: International Norms and Constitutional Options (IHRLG, 1991) - led fact-finding team and comparative review of human rights elements of democratic parliamentary monarchies for transition in Nepal

Post-Election Myanmar: A Popular Mandate Withheld and Report on the Myanmar Election: 1990 (International Human Rights Law Group, 1990) - led election observation and follow-up report

For more scholarship: Google Scholar  and  SSRN.com 

Blogs and Editorial Opinions 

Migration, Work and Rights: the case for human rights due diligence, The Global, Global Governance Centre, The Graduate Institute, Geneva (IHEID), 08 September 2021.

The Role of the ABA in Addressing the Rising Misuse of Criminal Processes Against Worker Rights Advocates, American Bar Ass'n Center for Human Rights, Blog, 29 June 2021 (with B. Benowitz)

COVID-19 and supply chain relationships: inclusive governance reform or break-up ahead? The Global, Global Governance Centre, The Graduate Institute, Geneva (IHEID), 22 July 2020

Janelle Diller's Response to Robert McCorquodale, Defining the Rule of Law Symposium, OpinioJuris, 19 May 2016. 

Burma’s Constitutional Farce, The Asian Wall Street Journal, 8-9 January 1993

Kidnapping Foreign Citizens, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 June 1992 

Bush’s Blind Eye on Nepal, The New York Times, 31 March 1990