Pursuit of profit and corporate power undermine workers’
assembly and association rights, warns UN expert
NEW YORK (21 October 2016) – People’s ability to exercise
their assembly and association rights in the workplace is deteriorating
drastically worldwide, leading to worsened labour conditions, weaker social
protections and increased inequalities, United Nation expert Maina Kiai told
the UN General Assembly.
Speaking during the presentation of his final report* to
the main UN body, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful
assembly and association highlighted unyielding pursuit of profits, increasing
corporate power and the changing nature of employment relationships as leading
causes of this decline.
“Assembly and association rights in the workplace
continue to be undermined for a large proportion of workers, mainly because of
an economic world order that relentlessly pursues ever-increasing growth and
profit at all costs,” Mr. Kiai stated.
“Meanwhile,” he added, “the growing power and geographic
reach of large corporations has meant that States are increasingly unwilling or
unable to regulate these business entities and their attempts to place profits
ahead of the rights and dignity of workers.”
The independent expert warned that, without the checks
and balances provided by robust protection for workers’ rights, workers are
inevitably seeing a decline in working conditions, social protections, and
labour relations. He underscored that assembly and association rights form the
foundation for labour’s traditional tools for asserting rights, including
unions, strikes and collective bargaining.
The report paints a grim picture and cites dozens of
examples of violations of worker’s assembly and association rights in more than
50 countries, ranging from union busting to legislative gaps to assassinations
of union leaders.
The UN expert highlighted as an example the situation of
migrant workers in the Middle East kafala system and the United States H2 visa
program. Employers in both systems have near total control over guest workers,
which is “a significant deterrent to their free exercise of assembly and
association rights,” Mr. Kiai said.
The expert also referred to the situation of women,
supply chain workers, migrants, informal workers and domestic workers, whom he
said have been hit particularly hard by the deterioration of assembly and
association rights.
The Special Rapporteur emphasised that the primary burden
for protecting and promoting assembly and association rights falls upon States,
who must take positive measures to do this.
“I have heard too often of States working to undermine
these rights, or purporting to remain ‘neutral’ or ‘hands-off’ in the struggle
by workers to claim their rights,” Mr. Kiai said. “Let me be clear: Under
international human rights law, States have a positive obligation to facilitate
the enjoyment of all rights, including the right of association for the
purposes of joining trades unions. There can be no neutral position in this
regard.”
The Special Rapporteur said that fresh approaches were
needed in order to enable all workers to fully enjoy their rights.
“The old ways of defending workers’ rights are no longer
working,” he said. “Our world and its globalized economy are changing at a
lightning pace, and it is critical that the tools we use to protect to labour
rights adapt just as quickly.”
“Labour rights are human rights. It is time for states
and the human rights community to place labour rights at the core of their
work,” he concluded.
(*) Check the Special Rapporteur’s report to the General
Assembly: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/71/385&referer=/english/&Lang=E
ENDS
Mr. Maina Kiai (Kenya) took up his functions as the first
Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of
association in May 2011. He is appointed in his personal capacity as an independent
expert by the UN Human Rights Council. As a Special Rapporteur, Mr. Kiai is
part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.
Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human
Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding
and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or
thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on
a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their
work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in
their individual capacity. Learn more, log on to:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/AssemblyAssociation/Pages/SRFreedomAssemblyAssociationIndex.aspx
For more information and media requests, please contact
Caroline Avanzo (+41 22 9179117 / cavanzo@ohchr.org) or write to
freeassembly@ohchr.org
You can access this press release at:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20720&LangID=E
For media inquiries related to other UN independent
experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917
9383 / xcelaya@ohchr.org)
For your news websites and social media:
Multimedia
content & key messages relating to our news releases are available on UN
Human Rights social media channels, listed below. Please tag us using the
proper handles:
Twitter: @UNHumanRights
Facebook: unitednationshumanrights
Instagram: unitednationshumanrights
Google+: unitednationshumanrights
Youtube: unohchr
Nema komentara:
Objavi komentar