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7 - Labor Rights as Human Rights

The Role of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Responsible Business Conduct Guidelines

from Part II - The Intersection of Psychology and Human Rights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2020

By
Raymond Saner  and
Lichia Yiu
Edited by
Neal S. Rubin  and
Roseanne L. Flores
Neal S. Rubin
Affiliation:
Adler University
Roseanne L. Flores
Affiliation:
Hunter College, City University of New York
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Summary

This chapter introduces the reader to the various guiding frameworks for responsible business conduct and how they relate to labor practices and labor rights within and across countries and cultures. The authors explain how and why the global community has found it necessary to address these issues as part of the movement to steer national and transnational corporations to uphold human rights and contribute to social development around the world. Key international instruments are introduced and discussed, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) guidelines, the UN Guidelines on Business and Human Rights, and the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprise and Social Policy. An example is given that provides a concrete example of how the OECD guidelines are applied to a case of reported human rights abuse. The authors capture the significant components of the OECD RBC and associated guidelines from both social and organizational psychology perspectives and show how psychological knowledge and competence can strengthen the application of these international instruments for the protection of human rights and labor rights.

Keywords

Labor RightsHuman RightsOECE Guidelines on Responsible Business ConductNational Contact PointsMediationSocial PsychologyOrganizational Psychology
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Human Rights , pp. 105 - 120
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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