Speaker details

Biography

Sandra Cossart is an international lawyer and Sherpa’s director since 2017. Prior to this position, Sandra headed the Globalisation and Human Rights Program within Sherpa for almost 8 years. She started a career within international organizations such as the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. She then was responsible for an EU funded project in Russia for several years. She also worked in a law firm as a corporate lawyer as well as for the Business and Human Rights Resource Center in London. During this period, Sherpa was at the forefront of some of the most important milestones in corporate liability for human rights, bringing new strategic litigation cases such as Vinci for forced labour in Qatar or Lafarge for financing of terrorism in Syria and testing innovative legal ground to fight against corporate impunity. Sandra also played a pivotal role in the development of the ground-breaking duty of vigilance legislation that was adopted in France in March 2017 after years of intensive advocacy work. She also regularly engages constructively with and provides expert advice and submissions to various stakeholders, including the French government, and was therefore co-rapporteur of the French National Action Plan draft on Business and Human Rights. Sandra holds a Master of Laws degree from Sorbonne University, as well as degrees from Sciences Po in Paris, the College of Europe in Bruges (LLM) and the London School of Economics. Sandra is a French national and fluently speaks French, English and Russian