The Special Rapporteur's vision of the mandate 2017, para. 40
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- In his fourth report to the General Assembly (A/71/385), the previous mandate holder focused on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association in the workplace in the context of the new global economic order, in which the power of large multinational corporations had increased, while, at the same time, the power of States to regulate those business entities had eroded, if not, in some cases, having been voluntarily ceded in order to attract the businesses in question. He observed that the new global economic order had had a profound impact on workers’ ability to exercise their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. He noted that the traditional tools for asserting labour rights, such as trade unions, strikes and collective bargaining, had been significantly weakened around the globe, and vast swathes of the world’s labour force were unable to exercise their fundamental rights to associate or assemble and were without access to remedies when their rights were violated. He examined how and why that had happened, focusing on the most marginalized portions of the world’s labour force, including global supply chain workers, informal workers, migrant workers and domestic workers. He found that, although States were under an international obligation to respect and promote workers’ rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, many were dismally failing at the task, with grave implications. Those rights were a critical tool in levelling the unequal relationship between workers and employers that, in turn, helped workers to correct abuses and gain access to fair wages, safe working conditions and a collective voice. Poor enforcement of those rights in the workplace could also exacerbate global inequality, poverty, violence and child and forced labour and directly contributed to problems such as trafficking in persons and slavery. He recommended obliterating the distinction between labour rights and human rights generally, as labour rights were human rights, and the ability to exercise those rights in the workplace was a prerequisite for workers to enjoy a broad range of economic, social, cultural, political and other rights.
- Legal status
- Non-negotiated soft law
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Means of adoption
- N.A.
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Persons on the move
- Year
- 2017
- Paragraph type
- Other
- Paragraph focus
- Contributions of the previous mandate holder
- Paragraph number
- 40
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