Advancing Respect for Labour Rights Globally through Public Procurement

Our latest article on public procurement "Advancing Respect for Labour Rights Globally through Public Procurement" has been published on Cogitatio Press.

In this article, the authors Olga Martin-Ortega and Claire Methven O'Brien explore that governments are mega-consumers of many manufactured products and services. As such they should in principle be able to influence workers’ rights abroad via the terms of purchase contracts. Yet to date little attention has been paid to the potential of public procurement to promote respect for labour rights globally besides the international trade law framework. Building on a limited emerging scholarship and policy developments, this article addresses this gap. Section 2 considers legal definitions of public procurement and distinguishes primary and secondary aims of procurement under key international and regional procurement regimes. This highlights that, although historically used to advance labour rights domestically, these regimes have restricted public buyers’ scope to advance labour rights beyond national borders. Section 3 explores new international policy frameworks on responsible global value chains and supply chains which by contrast appear to augur the greater use of public procurement to promote labour rights globally in future. Section 4 argues, supported by analysis of the limited examples available, that public buying has the potential to positively influence enjoyment of labour rights in practice. Concluding, Section 5 reflects on what the more specific impacts of public procurement in this context may be, and how public buying should complement other mechanisms for improving labour conditions across supply chains, such as social clauses in trade agreements. Finally, we outline issues for further research and the future policy agenda.

The full article is available here and is free to download.

Dr. Daniel Aguirre joins the BHRE as Associate Member

Dr. Aguirre interviewed by Al Jazzera ABOUT THE human rights violations that have led to the humanitarian crisis and ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

The BHRE is excited to welcome Dr. Daniel Aguirre as an Associate member. Daniel is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Greenwich and teaches Tort law and the Legal Advocacy and Ethics courses. His research interests include investment law, business and human rights, transitional justice and human rights in developing states and South-East Asia. 

Dr Aguirre was an international legal advisor for the International Commission of Jurists based in Yangon, Myanmar, working on business and human rights, the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law and access to remedy for violations of human rights. He has experience working with non-governmental organisations and universities in North America, Europe, and Asia. 

For more information on his profile see Our Team.

Electronics Watch Annual Conference 2017: Ending Precarious Labour – Public Buyers’ Role in Protecting the Rights of Electronics Workers

Last Thursday (December 7th) at Queen Mary University, Electronics Watch held the annual conference in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London, The Business, Human Rights and the Environment Research Group at University of Greenwich and Good Electronics Network.

The conference was open by Bjorn Claeson, director of Electronics Watch and it was follow by a discussion about the power of public procurement in protecting workers’ rights. This key note conversation had the experts Kan Matzusaki from IndustriALL, Kristian Hemstrom from Stockholm Country Council, Sweden and Heather White, Co-director and producer of the film “Complicit”.

The conference had the valuable participation of experts’ speakers that shared their insights about electronics industry and public buyers. The session on precarious labour in the global electronics industry revealed worrying facts in Indonesia, Thailand and India. The research in India by the Cividep, showed that 80% of workers in seven different electronics companies are facing precarious forms of employment.  

Robert Stumberg from Georgetown University Law Center demonstrated in his video conference that regulations on transparency in supply chains do not go far enough to face the current situation of global electronics industry, which makes the work of Electronics Watch be more valuable for companies committed to improving working conditions.  Liz Cooper from University of Edinburgh highlight their Electronics Watch membership and the work that the university is doing on supply chain transparency, which sets a good example for other universities.

In the final plenary, Gale Raj-Reichert from Queen Mary University of London indicated that the unsteady cycles of production in the electronics industry and the short product life for smartphones, contributes to excessive working hours. The ending session of the conference emphasised the importance of the monitoring system suggested by Electronics Watch, which empowers workers to identify their problems and get support from public procurement.