"Make Rules on Rights Binding for Businesses - ILO Should Create Treaty to Protect Workers"

Delegates at the 2016 International Labour Conference should initiate a process to develop a binding, international convention to protect human rights in global supply chains, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Governments, employers, and workers from around the world are meeting in Geneva for the annual labor summit, starting on May 30, 2016, to discuss how to ensure “decent work” in global supply chains.

The 21-page report, “Human Rights in Supply Chains: A Call for a Binding Global Standard on Due Diligence,” draws upon two decades of Human Rights Watch research on child labor and other labor rights abuses, environmental damage, and violations of the rights to health, land, food, and water, in the context of global supply chains.