A/79/159 organizations also monitor workplaces and report any identified human rights abuses; they support victims and contribute to their protection; they influence policy and legislation; they engage in partnerships with Governments, civil society organizations, businesses and employers and international organizations to promote workers’ rights; and they support workers’ access to justice and a remedy through domestic courts as well as international bodies including the ILO supervisory system and the United Nations system. 45. Yet workers’ organizations and their members face a number of challenges in fulfilling their mandates, ranging from harassment and anti-union discrimination to threats and the use of violence. It is also clear that certain categories of workers face significant barriers in exercising trade union rights due to intersectional forms of discrimination and marginalization. They include female workers; seasonal and other migrant workers; indigenous workers; workers belonging to minority groups; workers in the informal economy, non-standard forms of employment and digital labour markets; domestic workers; sex workers; and workers in rural or remote areas. Particular consideration needs to be given to encourage collective agency from these workers, and workers’ organizations would also benefit from increased diversity among their membership and leadership. Contemporary forms of slavery can only be prevented when all workers have the right to speak with a collective voice without discrimination, and when their rights to form and join workers’ organizations and engage in collective bargaining under ILO standards are realized fully in law and in practice. It is essential that States, businesses and employers, civil society organizations and the international community recognize the role of workers’ organizations and build and maintain a constructive working relationship with them. VI. Recommendations 46. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, makes the following recommendations to Governments: (a) Ratify and fully implement all relevant ILO Conventions, particularly the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98); (b) Recognize and protect trade union rights for all workers in law and practice without discrimination of any kind; (c) Ensure that any restriction on trade union rights is narrowly defined and applied in law and practice; (d) Recognize the existence of workers’ organizations without any restrictions or hurdles and respect their independence; (e) Refrain from arbitrarily interfering with workers’ organizations and workers exercising their trade union rights; (f) Prohibit anti-union discrimination and strengthen accountability for public authorities, businesses and others who arbitrarily or unlawfully interfere with the activities of workers’ organizations and prevent workers from exercising trade union rights; 24-13043 19/21

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