Business & Human Rights Resource Centre: Home

Information for labour rights specialists

"Labour rights are at the heart of the fight for human rights. The freedom to associate, to organise, and to have equal opportunities in the workplace - every year we see these rights under attack around the world.”

• Kate Allen, Director, Amnesty International UK

A. Sections of the website that labour rights specialists find particularly useful

1. “Individual companies” section:

• over 4000 company-specific subsections, including reports about their record on labour rights

2. “Issues” section includes:

• “Labour: General”
• “Child labour”
• “Export processing zones”
• “Forced labour”
• “Living wage”
• "Migrant & immigrant workers"
• “Prison labour”
• “Sexual Harassment”
• "Health: General (including workplace health & safety)"
• “Discrimination/diversity: General”
• “AIDS/HIV discrimination”
• “Age discrimination”
• “Disability discrimination”
• “Gender discrimination”
• “Marital status discrimination”
• “Political opinion discrimination”
• “Pregnancy discrimination”
• “Racial/ethnic/caste/origin discrimination”
• “Religious discrimination”
• “Sexual orientation discrimination”
• “Complaints mechanism”
• “Monitoring”, “Fair Labor Association”, “WRAP”, “Worker Rights Consortium”
• “Supply chain/’Fair trade’/Procurement”

3. “Principles” section includes:

• “ILO Declaration on fundamental principles & rights at work”
• “ILO Tripartite Declaration”
• “UN Global Compact”
• “UN Norms on business & human rights”

4. “UN & intl orgs” section includes:

• “ILO”

5. Other relevant sections:

• “Certification” (in “Miscellaneous”)
• “Companies & slavery” (in “Miscellaneous” – “Historical”)
• “Best Companies for Minorities (USA)”, “HRC Corporate Equality Index (USA)”, “Top 50 Companies for Diversity (USA)” (in “Miscellaneous” – “Ratings & Indexes”)

B. Labour rights specialists on our International Advisory Network

Our International Advisory Network is chaired by Mary Robinson, Executive Director of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and President of Ireland).  It includes a number of individuals recognised for their expertise in labour rights issues, including:

• Hasan Barghouthi, General Director, Democracy & Workers' Rights Center, Palestinian Authority area (West Bank)
• Dr. Anita Chan, Research Fellow, Contemporary China Centre, Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies, The Australian National University, co-editor of The China Journal (China/Hong Kong)
• Marie Guiraud, Responsable du bureau Mondialisation et droits humains, Fédération Internationale des ligues des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH) (Programme Officer on Globalisation and Human Rights, International Federation for Human Rights Leagues) (France)
• Dr. Liu Kaiming, founder and Executive Director, Institute of Contemporary Observation; Founder of the Migrant Workers Community College (China)
• Peter Pennartz, International Restructuring and Education Network Europe (IRENE) (Netherlands)
• Carolina Quinteros, Director, Grupo de Monitoreo Independiente de El Salvador (Monitoring Group of El Salvador) (El Salvador)
• Monina Wong Ching-man, Researcher, Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee (China/Hong Kong)
• Ineke Zeldenrust, Clean Clothes Campaign (Netherlands)

C. Labour rights specialists among our trustees and staff

Our trustees include:

• Mila Rosenthal, Director of Business, Environment and Human Rights Program, Amnesty International USA; former Director of Workers Rights Program, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights

D. Examples of labour rights-related reports linked to by our site

Thailand: Fire in Kader Toy Factory (producing Disney dolls) kills 188 workers, seriously injures 469. They had been locked inside “to prevent them from stealing toys”.

India’s silk industry: Bonded children as young as five work 12 or more hours a day.  They dip their hands in boiling water that burns and blisters them.

China: Reebok encourages formation of pioneering trade union with many freely elected officials in one of its supplier factories, after repeated complaints from workers about conditions

Kenya: Women working at certain flower plantations (providing fresh flowers for European market) raped on a regular basis by male employers

Freudenberg renews global agreement with International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) – covers trade union rights, workplace equality, health & safety, ban on child & forced labour

Colombia: ICFTU report shows Colombia the most dangerous country for trade union activity, 184 trade unionists murdered during 2002

Ivory Coast: Chocolate manufacturers, human rights groups and Ivory Coast Government sign pact to end child labour in chocolate industry

Japan: Banking giant Nomura blacklisted by corporate responsibility firm for its record on gender equality

South Africa: Discrimination towards employees with HIV/AIDS still prevalent

USA (Mississippi): Black workers sue Ingalls shipyard for racial discrimination and harassment, including disproportionately high rates of demotion, retaliation against complainants, and recruitment for the KKK

Guatemala: Maquila workers at Liz Claiborne contractor obtain the country's first collective bargaining agreement

UK: Employment tribunal finds Pakistani employee insulted daily by white managers. Called 'Paki' 'dirty Arab’, 'Afghan terrorist', 'homo fag'.

Sweden: Mary Robinson launches “Plural” diversity initiative with 15 participating companies, including Hewlett-Packard, IKEA, Swedbank, Volvo Cars

Malaysia: Women plantation workers poisoned by pesticides

France: Major French retailers launch programme to grade suppliers on child and forced labour, discrimination, freedom of association, health & safety

Brazil & Dominican Republic: Workplace safety inspections and enforcement of worker rights found lacking in export processing zones