A recession of rights

Friday, March 20, 2009

Hannah Grene, Researcher with the International Human Rights Network, explores how worsening economies erode basic rights

Like almost everything else, human rights are likely to be affected by the current global recession. While it should not be assumed that all impacts of the economic downturn will be negative for human rights,¹ recent headlines and past experience suggest that many consequences of recession are detrimental to the human rights standards of the most vulnerable. The World Bank is estimating that a further 53 million more people could fall into poverty in 2009, resulting in 1.5 billion living on $2 a day or less. There is a need for companies, consumers, governments and international organisations to be aware of the human rights impact of the economic downturn and responses to it, especially in the developing world, and consider how best to safeguard against any slipping of standards. However, the international legal obligations that commit states to uphold fundamental human rights apply, whatever the economic situation.

The human rights issues associated with global trade and industry are diverse and complex. Issues such as the right to work, the right to fair working conditions and pay, the right to rest and the right to freedom of association (including trade unions) are central to this. But a wider circle of other rights are also impacted by what happens in the workplace: children's right to education is affected by the work and income possibilities of parents and tolerance of child labour; working conditions impact on the right to health; and the constant challenge of discrimination is compounded. All these rights are enshrined in legally binding international treaties that the majority of developed and developing world states have ratified, but as pressure intensifies on businesses to be competitive or even to survive, their fulfilment comes under greater threat. Assuming the work is available, many workers are being asked to work longer hours for reduced pay. In the developing world, this may see pay fall below subsistence levels, with working hours for even more workers extending beyond safe and healthy limits. A possible domino human rights impact is that economic downturn leads to social tensions and, in turn, to state responses that involve the curtailment of civil and political rights.²

States with declining economies are incentivised to lower workplace human rights standards in an effort to be more economically competitive. Inward investment is less likely to be subject to rigorous scrutiny regarding pay, conditions, environmental impact, etc. In some cases, the risk is that progress made will be lost. In 2008, for example, a new labour law in China required contracts for all workers and set out clearer grievance procedures. At present, however, government officials are reported as disregarding many of the provisions of the law.

A highlighted concern of the global recession is the relative global economic strength of China. While legitimate criticisms may be levelled at the first world generally in terms of token concern for the human rights of those who meet the first world consumer needs, China's investment and aid relationship with the developing world is marked by a studious avoidance of human rights questions of its trade and aid partners.

The economic downturn makes all the more relevant ongoing debate regarding human rights responsibilities of companies. While for the most part, human rights treaties only bind states, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Business and Human Rights Professor John Ruggie has recently proposed the formula that states have the duty to protect human rights, but companies have a clear duty to respect them, that is, to do no harm. These responsibilities entail a corresponding right to an effective remedy for rights holders. Last year, the Special Rapporteur's mandate was renewed in order for him to explore the question of effective grievance mechanisms, both judicial and non-judicial, and at international, national and company level. The knowledge that a higher level of human rights abuses are likely to happen in an economic downturn should increase the urgency of this work.

Companies' obligation to respect or 'do no harm' to human rights introduces a potentially important additional accountability element – with companies bound to observe international human rights standards, even where they are being effectively enforced by the state in which they are operating.

Furthermore, a company must be aware of the consequences of its actions on individuals beyond its direct employees. Globalisation has led to complex supply chains. Most large manufacturing firms outsource some, if not all, of the actual assembly of their products. Contracts are given out on a piecemeal basis, and factories compete against each other to provide the lowest price and the quickest turnaround. As Brad Adams, Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, has noted: "The economic crisis could well spark a 'race to the bottom' in rights protections and work conditions as employers exploit migrants desperate to work." This tendency also threatens the chain of responsibility for ensuring adequate conditions and some tools and principles – some general, such as the UN Global Compact, some industry specific, like the Kimberly Diamond Process – that are meant to assist companies in ensuring compliance.

A key strategy in pre-empting and addressing the negative human right consequences of economic downturn is to be found in what are termed Human Rights-Based Approaches (HRBAs). HRBAs (plural to signify that different contexts require different strategies) are based on five core principles: express use of human rights language; emphasis on empowerment of rights holders; participation by all (as of right) in decisions that affect them; non-discrimination and attention to vulnerable groups; and accountability of duty holders.

Applying HRBAs in trade and industry is no different to doing so in the justice or education system. It involves asking human rights questions about decisions, processes, and, in recession, about changes made to deal with the economic downturn. In a recession, economic actors become more focused and adept at asking about the financial bottom line. HRBAs require that human rights are not sacrificed in reaching that line.

HRBAs are fundamentally concerned with process, and where decisions with negative consequences have to be taken, they focus on participation by employees and their representatives in such decision-making. As the International Labour Organization (ILO) recently highlighted, avoiding social tensions requires govern-ments, employers and trade unions to engage in dialogue in economic downturn. In the words of ILO's Caribbean regional office, 'to do so is to work towards the rights-based agenda of the ILO'.

At a minimum, encouraging empowerment and part-icipation by ensuring that trade partners and supplier companies allow unions to operate is likely to help avoid the worst abuses. These principles apply no less in the developed world. While most human rights in the workplace are covered by labour law and equality law in the developed world, many in sectors that are populated by vulnerable workers, migrant workers etc. are either not aware of these rights, or do not feel empowered to exercise them. Some such workers are likely to be doubly impacted upon. Even more are disempowered to assert their rights and blamed by others as being the root cause of their plight. As UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay recently stated: "These workers are most likely to be the first in line to losing their jobs, not only because their status is called into question, but also because they are employed in sectors that are particularly affected by the economic crisis…recession may give rise to xenophobic passions, discriminatory practices and even attacks against migrant workers and their families."

Guarding against the negative human rights impact of recession is not just about states and large corporations. Consumers, too, have an important role to play in ensuring that human rights are not a victim of recession, and there is evidence that, despite the downturn, consumer pressure continues to exert positive influence.

On 31st January, the Russell Corporation, a subsidiary of clothing company Fruit of the Loom, closed a factory that employed 1,800 workers in Honduras, citing economic factors. However, there was an ongoing dispute between the union and management at the time of closure, and international monitors, the Workers' Rights Consortium and the Fair Labor Association, found that there had been labour violations and that the union disputes contributed to the closure. In consequence, 12 universities have thus far withdrawn their contracts with Russell. As college sports teams are a major source of Russell's business, this has already prompted an apology and a promise by the Russell Corporation to improve their compliance, and to employ third-party monitors to monitor conditions in their factories.

Over 60 years ago at the launch of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt delivered a speech that captured the essence of human rights.

Those sentiments serve as no less of a rallying call in global recession.

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home, so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

International Human Rights Network is a not-for-profit organisation based in Ireland, which provides support services to organisations seeking to apply human rights based approaches in their work: www.ihrnetwork.org

1 Commentators cite the rise of non-profit micro-finance organisations such as Grameen Bank (with their focus on those in poverty, women entrepreneurs, etc.) as a direct consequence of disillusionment with traditional global financial institutions
2 'Britain faces summer of rage – police: Middle-class anger at economic crisis could erupt into violence on streets', The Guardian, Monday 23rd February 2009