The agriculture sector plays an important role in the global economy and world food supply. Worldwide, millions of people work on an estimated 450 million farms, which indicates the importance of human rights in the agriculture and food sector. Environmental issues have been on the agenda in this sector for a couple of decades but human rights standards are relatively new.

Sustainable agriculture covers a wide range of human rights challenges such as the right to favourable working conditions, the right to a healthy and safe work environment, fair land management etc. Work in the agriculture sector is labour intensive and employees are often low educated, which makes the employees vulnerable for human rights abuses as, discrimination, systematic denial of women's rights, low payment, , violations of the freedom of expression and unfavourable working conditions.

More information on human rights and sustainable agriculture:

Dutch ministry of Agriculture, nature and food quality

Environmental protection agency

Business and Human Rights: Agriculture sector

International initiatives and standards:

- The United Nations food and agriculture organisation

- The International Food Policy Research Institute

- Harkin-Engel Protocol

- Ethical trading initiatives (ETI) 

- The Tea Sourcing Partnership 

Tourism is an industry which has an immense impact on the economic and social development of countries. Particularly many developing countries depend on the tourism sector. Sustainable tourism leads to business practices that stimulate economic and social development while maintaining cultural integrity, low environmental impact and human rights compliance. Human rights compliance in the tourism sector practically means taking the responsibility to respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, to conserve their cultural heritage and traditional values while contributing to understanding and tolerance, providing socio-economic benefits, stable employment and income-earning opportunities.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) speaks of the role of human rights compliance in promoting friendly relations between nations and equal development. In many situations the tourism sector is blamed for decreasing the control of the local community over its own destiny, however, in many countries the local economy is also completely dependent on the tourism sector. But economic growth and investment does not only bring about sustainable development, it needs more. The last years many certificates, labels and standards have been developed to ensure the protection of human rights in the tourism sector. More information on human rights and the tourism sector;

The Travel Foundation

Sustainable Travel International

Travelife - sustainable tourism

International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics 2008

TIMEOUT: Retracing your Travel Fingerprints

A number national and international standards and codes have been developed to stimulate human rights compliance in the tourism sector;

CBD: Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism development

Q&A on Eco-Tourism

Ten Commandments on Eco-Tourism

The resource extractive sector is an important sector in the global economy and therefore bears a strong social responsibility for human rights compliance. However, the drive for new resources can steer corporations into human rights violations. In countries with many resources human rights violations are more likely to occur. The extraction of resources as oil, gas and diamonds is not labour intensive, this means that a relatively small elite group can earn huge amounts of money without the need to have the support from a large part of the population as employees. This gives the population minimal bargaining power on state’s practices and it enhances human rights violations, corruption and repressive forms of governments, which places human rights challenges on corporations in the extractive sector. Oil and diamond producing companies have become under particular scrutiny for their business practices and political role in conflict zones. Nigeria, Columbia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola are all conflict zones in which resources and corporations have played an important role.

A major human rights challenge for extractive corporations are health and safety regulations on the workplace. SMEs active in the extractive sector operate in a rather dangerous field of business and need to take responsibility for appropriate precautionary measures to protect employees from work-related hazards and dangers in the workplace. The growth of the extractive sector in remote regions has increased the demands that corporations take into account rights of the indigenous population. The International conventions concerning indigenous rights require the consultation of indigenous peoples over the exploitation of any resources on their lands, and fair compensation for damages to their land. SMEs doing business in countries with a large indigenous population must be aware of these regulations concerning indigenous people’s rights. The right to property, complicity in third party abuses, forced relocation and corruption / bribery are other important human rights challenges that SMEs operating in this sector must take into account. More information on sustainable business practices and human rights in the extractive sector can be found below.

Human Rights and the Oil Industry

Minerals and Sustainable Development

More information about International Initiatives and Standards:

The Global Mining Initiative (GMI)

Diamond certification

Principles on Security and Human Rights

Corporations in the manufacturing and garment sector tend to employ large workforces in countries without strict judicial references, this means that human rights compliance is often not sufficiently embedded in the national law, such as labour law, non- discrimination legislation, health and safety regulations etc. This poses responsibilities for human rights on corporations operating in the garment and manufacturing sector. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has published critically on the working conditions, health and safety regulations in the garment industry. SMEs in the manufacturing and garment industry must be aware of the following human rights challenges: child labour, fair remuneration, healthy working conditions and a safe workplace. Another common human rights violation is discrimination (based on gender, age, health status, ethnicity, race, caste or mental or physical disability etc) which negatively impacts a person’s employment opportunities or otherwise result in unequal treatment in the workplace.

Most garment and manufacturing industries are based in developing countries because the production costs are low. These developing countries are often ruled by undemocratic and repressive governments, which poses another human rights challenge on SMEs in the garment and manufacturing sector; freedom of association and the recognition of workers’ representatives. Workers must be allowed the freedom to associate with organisations of their choice and the company must respect the role of worker’s organisations and allow them to function independently in order to protect employees’ human rights.

More specific information on human rights and the garment and manufacturing sector can be found on the following websites:

Clean clothes Campaign

Fair Wear Foundation

CAT, sustainable growth in textile industry

Codes and standards concerning human rights and the garment and manufacturing sector:

China Social Compliance 9000 for the Textile and Apparel Industry (CSC 9000 T)

ILO Conventions

ISO 26000 Guidelines for social responsibility

WRAP Principles - Certification Program Principles

SMEs in the Infrastructure and Utilities sector often operate in countries with weak legal structures and the nature of their activities brings them in close contact with governments that are often undemocratic and corrupt. Companies may find themselves dealing with repressive authorities, being dependent on their security forces in order to protect their installation, equipment and employees. Companies in the utilities and infrastructure sector operating in developing countries are exposed to human rights challenges like safe working conditions as the security of employees, risk of sabotage, health and safety regulations for employees and surrounding communities.

Another risk related to projects in the utilities and infrastructure sector is corruption. This is a major issue in this sector, due to often close cooperation between governments and companies. Corruption and human rights violations often intertwine, because both occur in a political and legal vacuum where government or companies cannot be held accountable for human rights violations. Therefore strong corporate responsibility and human rights compliance is necessary to protect corporations’ employees and surrounding community. A human rights challenge that deserves special attention is forced displacement of people. SMEs in the infrastructure and utilities sector often encounter opposition and sometimes violation when construction projects have negative impacts on the local population. Another issue is how a company’s relationship with authoritarian regimes and security forces may contribute to the human rights violations and what a company can do to prevent this involvement.

For more specific information on human rights and the Utilities and Infrastructure sector:

World Commission on Dams (WCD)

Business Partners for Development

International codes and standards:

UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force by Law Enforcement Officials

OECD Convention on Combating Bribery

ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Populations

A key issue in this sector is the discussion whether the pharmaceutical industry should be private or public. The right to health is explicitly mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This means that compliance with this human right falls under government responsibility, while private companies in the pharmaceutical and chemical sector are the ones in power. Companies in the pharmaceutical sector face specific human rights challenges because most of the companies work on the production of essential drugs and treatments or on advanced chemical technology. However the sector has heavily been criticised for high prices, the restrictive effects of patent and it is stated that the industry was deficient in investing in unprofitable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Human rights challenges in the pharmaceutical and chemical sector that need special attention are access to medicine, process and product safety, contamination and the rights of the local community / indigenous people.

Companies in this sector have the responsibility to enhance access to medicine in order to respect the right to health. Lack of drugs does not only violate the rights to health but it goes far beyond, it affects the right to development and access to education (when a teachers lack proper healthcare and medicine). The reputation of the chemical and pharmaceutical sector is not stainless, many companies are accused of neglecting the effects of its products and operations on public health and healthcare. SMEs operating in developing countries may face particular risks because of weak national occupational health and safety standards. The legal framework of these countries is often weak, which amplifies the corporate accountability for human rights compliance.

Companies in the chemical sector have come under pressure to take the responsibility and control of the end-use of their products to avoid harmful effects of misuse. Breaches of product safety, health and medical experiences without adequate safeguards have led to massive violations of human rights. Companies in the pharmaceutical and chemical sectors need to take adequate steps to ensure that their business practices do not in any way contribute to, or cause human rights violations. More information can be found on:

World Health Organisation (WHO)

The United Nations Environmental Programme

IFPMA Pharmaceutical Marketing Practiceshttp://www.ifpma.org/news/news_market.aspx

The Global alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI)

International standards and coded concerning human rights and pharmaceutical and chemical sectors

IFPMA code of pharmaceutical marketing

WHO Action programme on Essential Drugs

UN Convention on Biological Diversity

WHO guidelines for good Clinical Practice on Pharmaceutical Products

Corporations that source raw materials, as corporations in the ICT sector, are often exposed to a wide range of human rights challenges. The production of IT hardware and telecommunications is labour intensive, which resulted in many companies outsourcing their production to low wage countries. ICT producing companies are often associated with child labour, poor working conditions, health and safety violations and other challenges through their supply chain. SMEs in developing countries with repressive governments face another human rights challenge specific for the ICT sector; corporations’ advanced ICT may be used for human rights violations by the government, such as censorship, curtail freedom of expression, violation of privacy rights, manipulation of public opinion etc. Surveillance technology enables governments to monitor e-mails, the internet and telephone calls.

The production of ICT requires large amounts of resources as metal, tin, copper and coltan. These metals are used for the production of mobile phones, computer hardware, games, circuit boards etc. The trade of these metals are often considered to be the source of conflict, especially in Africa (which possesses 80% of world’s reserves). It is often believed to be one of the reasons why armies from neighbouring countries annex territory, kill and displace thousands of civilians. SMEs working with raw materials must be aware of the human rights violations in their supply chain.

The ICT sector also enhance human rights compliance in the sense that  new technologies as internet opened up closed repressive societies and became indispensable to many human rights activists around the world. Yet despite its potential to empower the civilians and increase information flows and knowledge, it is not always used to respect human rights. Corporations face huge human rights challenges like employment conditions, freedom of expression, access to knowledge and links to repressive government in their supply chain. More information about doing business in the ICT sector and human rights:

Global e-Sustainability Initiatives (GeSI)

Digital Partnership

Digital Futures

International standards on forced labour and freedom of expression:

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ILO conventions on labour standards