2020 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

A RECORDING OF THIS SESSION IS AVAILABLE HERE.


Session organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights in collaboration with International Labour Organization

Interpretation in English, French and Spanish will be available

Brief description of the session:
Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), all business enterprises – irrespective of their nature in terms of size, sector, location, ownership and structure – have a responsibility to respect human rights. So far, large enterprises in the formal economy and their supply chains have been the primary focus of initiatives aimed at implementing the UNGPs. However, activities in the informal economy (e.g., those by micro and small enterprises, family-run businesses, informal workers working for informal and formal businesses) are a major part of the global economy, especially in developing countries. This session will discuss current barriers and potential solutions to embed the UNGPs in the informal economy in support of the decent work agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. It will consider various potential pathways to achieve these goals, including the role of incentives to facilitate a transition to formality for both workers and enterprises.

Key specific objectives of the session:
This session aims to:

• Discuss human rights challenges in in the informal economy and identify ways to overcome these challenges; 
• Analyse the role of States and other stakeholders in facilitating a transition to formality;
• Explore how international organizations can work with all relevant stakeholders to identify and address existing barriers to decent work and to facilitate transitions to formality;
• Share good practices aimed at improving the rights of workers and reducing decent work deficits in the informal economy; and
• Discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected informal workers and informal economic units and what measures could be taken to avoid similar challenges in future.  

Key questions:

• What incentives should States offer to promote the UNGPs by actors that reduce decent work deficits and support transitions to formality?
• What is the role of business enterprises in promoting the respect for rights of informal workers directly linked to their products or services?
• In addition to formalization, are there other strategies which can reduce decent work deficits among informal workers in short, medium and long terms?
• What lessons can we draw from how informal workers were impacted disproportionately by COVID-19?
• How are informal workers likely to be affected by newer challenges such as climate change and automation? What should be done now to overcome those challenges?

Background to the discussion:
Informality is an integral part of the global economy. As per ILO estimates, two billion women and men (aged fifteen and over) work informally, representing more than 60 per cent of the world’s employed population. Moreover, about 81 per cent of the world’s economic units are informal. These informal enterprises tend to be for the most part small economic units: micro enterprises and small enterprises (including those without employees), and family-run businesses.

Informality puts the enjoyment of a full range of human rights and the protection of workers at stake: from the right to minimum wage, to occupational health and safety, right to health, adequate standards of living, rights of women and children, right to education, access to social security, protection from arbitrary or unlawful dismissal, freedom of association, right to collective bargaining, and access to effective remedies. Moreover, informal workers become more vulnerable in situations like the COVID-19 pandemic, with States’ relief measures in most cases unable to reach them. In this context, it becomes vital to address decent work deficits in the informal economy in line with the UNGPs, the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, and other international standards.

Additional background documents (pdf format) or relevant links:

• UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs)
• ILO, Tripartite declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy (MNE Declaration)
• ILO; Recommendation 204 - Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 204)
• ILO, Answering key questions around informality in micro and small enterprises during the COVID-19 crisis
• ILO, COVID-19 crisis and the informal economy: Immediate responses and policy challenges
• ILO, enterprise formalization
• ILO, Diagnostic de l’économie informelle au Sénégal

The session will help inform the WG’s project ‘Business and human rights: towards a decade of global implementation' (also known as “UNGPs 10+ / Next Decade BHR”). Centred around the upcoming tenth anniversary of the UNGPs in 2021, the project is taking stock of practice to date, identifying gaps and challenges, and developing a vision and roadmap for scaling up implementation of the UNGPs over the course of the next decade.