Recognizing Women's Rights at Work: Health and Women Workers in Global Supply Chains

Authors

Erika George, Boston University School of LawFollow
Candace D. Gibson
Rebecca Sewall
David Wofford

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

ISSN

1085-5718

Publisher

University of California Berkeley School of Law

Language

en-US

Abstract

The Guiding Principles mandate that businesses respect the human fights enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights and in the International Labour Organization (ILO)'s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Due diligence processes and risk impact assessments are the main recommended means for ensuring compliance with companies' commitments to respect international human fights. Because OSH as a conceptual framework and regulatory order is not sufficient to identify the risk of health fights violations to women workers, we argue companies should not anchor their due diligence and risk assessment in OSH conventions and settle for a check-the-box solution where worker health is at risk. Rather, a more robust appreciation of the substantive content of the human fight to health on the part of business enterprises could result in better health outcomes for all workers and reduce the risk of fights abuses in the workplace. We re-examine the fight to health of women workers and explore the reasons for aligning OSH with human fights health standards relevant to global business enterprises.

We use a gender lens to bring the lack of alignment between standard approaches to occupational safety and health and international human fights standards into sharper focus.⁶ Looking through a gender lens we find a more consistent, and ultimately more business -friendly, approach to improving the health of women workers -and, thereby, all workers could benefit from aligning OSH policy priorities with new principles designed to incorporate respect for human fights into business practices. In Part II, we give an overview of the impact of globalization on the health of women workers and outline the current application of occupational health standards. In Part III, we analyze the fight to health for women under international law as well as the non-human fights mechanisms that inform the role of the workplace in ensuring worker health. In Part IV, we review the Guiding Principles with particular attention devoted to the due diligence responsibilities of corporations as relevant to the health of women workers. Finally, we conclude with a preliminary set of recommendations for aligning OSH with general health fights to inform the development of due diligence and human fights impact assessment processes consistent with the UNGPs.

Recommended Citation

Erika George, Candace D. Gibson, Rebecca Sewall & David Wofford, Recognizing Women's Rights at Work: Health and Women Workers in Global Supply Chains , in 35 Berkley Journal of International Law 1 (2017).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3826