Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights (A/HRC/38/33)
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, prepared pursuant to Council resolution 35/19, focusing on the International Monetary Fund and its impact on social protection. Link to report (Arabic, Chinese,...
Read MoreInequality in Asia and the Pacific in the era of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Inequality in Asia and the Pacific is on the rise. Many countries, including those held up as models of dynamism and prosperity, have experienced a widening of existing gaps, accompanied by environmental degradation. Market-led growth alone is not sufficient to deliver a prosperous, sustainable future for all. This report...
Read MoreEgypt Social Project Indicators
To offer a multidimensional view of socioeconomic well being, Egypt’s Social Progress Indicators (ESPI) measure six topics: health; education; labour; urbanization; food, water, and agricultural land; and economic policy as a determinant of social progress. By incorporating gender analysis across these six topics, ESPI also highlights the gender gaps...
Read MoreReport of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights on his mission to the United States of America (A/HRC/38/33/Add.1)
The Secretariat has the honour to transmit to the Human Rights Council the report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, on his mission to the United States of America from 1 to 15 December 2017. The purpose of the visit was to evaluate,...
Read MoreInnovative approaches for ensuring universal social protection for the future of work
Social protection systems around the world face challenges to provide full and effective coverage for workers in all forms of employment, including those in “new” forms of employment. While some emerging work and employment arrangements may provide greater flexibility for workers and employers, they may lead to significant gaps...
Read MoreEU Social Protection Systems Programme (EU-SPS)
The EU Social Protection Systems Programme (EU-SPS) is a 4-year programme supporting ten developing partner country governments and national expert institutions in their efforts to develop inclusive and sustainable social protection systems in close co-ordination with other international partners. Link to...
Read MoreEliminating and Preventing Forced Labour: Checkpoints app
This mobile app allows business managers and auditors to create interactive checklists that will help them ensure a forced labour-free operation. There are 38 checkpoints in total – each one provides best-practice recommendations for taking action. A PDF version is also...
Read MoreThe impact of HIV and AIDS on the world of work: Global estimates
The majority of people living with or affected by HIV and AIDS are of working age. It is essential to understand and measure the economic and social impacts of the epidemic on the labour force. Bringing together health data, in particular HIV prevalence data, with labour force, economic and...
Read MoreThe Aarhus Convention: an implementation guide
The Aarhus Convention, which is open for global accession, offers powerful twin protections for the environment and human rights. It provides an effective model for ensuring public input in defining and implementing green economy programmes, in choosing the most appropriate road maps to sustainability and for increasing transparency and...
Read MoreUrbanization and Industrialization for Africa’s Transformation
Despite the recent slowdown of the global economy and the weakening of Africa’s economic performance with the attendant implications for inclusion and sustainability, the long-term growth outlook for Africa remains promising. The region’s long-term fundamentals remain strong as the pace of growth stands to benefit from a demographic dividend...
Read MoreBeyond Misclassification: The Digital Transformation of Work
The first part of this article provides a brief litigation update on various worker lawsuits within the gig economy. While the O’Connor v. Uber case has received the lion’s share of attention and analysis, similar lawsuits on labor standards have been filed against other on-demand platforms. Analysis of the...
Read MoreBeclouded Work in Historical Perspective
The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal is publishing a collection of papers on the “gig” economy and labor law, edited by Valerio De Stefano of the International Labor Organization. This paper places what is seen as an innovation in a larger historical context. It compares “gig” work to the putting-out...
Read MoreUber, Taskrabbit, & Co: Platforms as Employers? Rethinking the Legal Analysis of Crowdwork
One of the key assumptions underpinning the rise of ‘crowdsourced work’ – from transport apps including Uber to online platforms such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk – is the assertion put forward by most platforms that crowdworkers are self-employed, independent contractors. As a result, individuals might find themselves without recourse to worker-protective...
Read MoreCommoditized Workers. Case Study Research on Labour Law Issues Arising from a Set of ‘On-Demand/Gig Economy’ Platforms
In the framework of the so-called “sharing economy”, the number of on-demand companies matching labour supply and demand is on the rise. These schemes may enlarge opportunities for people willing to find a job or to top up their salaries. Despite the upsides of creating new peer marketplaces, these...
Read MoreOperating an Employer Reputation System: Lessons from Turkopticon, 2008-2015
In November 2005, Amazon launched Mechanical Turk (AMT), a website where “requesters” can post tasks, called “Human Intelligence Tasks” or “HITs”, for workers to complete for pay. Workers are required to agree that they are independent contractors, not employees, and that they are therefore not entitled to minimum wage...
Read MoreThe Rise of the ‘Just-in-Time Workforce’: On-Demand Work, Crowd Work and Labour Protection in the ‘Gig-Economy’
The so-called “gig-economy” has been growing exponentially in numbers and importance in recent years but its impact on labour rights has been largely overlooked. Forms of work in the “gig-economy” include “crowd work”, and “work-on-demand via apps”, under which the demand and supply of working activities is matched online...
Read MoreIntroduction: Crowdsourcing, the Gig-Economy and the Law
The Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal is publishing a collection of papers on the gig-economy and labor law, edited by Valerio De Stefano (International Labour Office and Bocconi University). This collection, entitled “Crowdsourcing, the Gig-Economy and the Law”, gathers contributions from several labour lawyers and social scientists to...
Read MoreSharing is Caring? Not quite. Some observations about “the sharing economy”
Fast evolving cloud-computing platforms that enable new business models, combined with a rapid uptake in digital technologies by consumers and a change in consumer behaviour and preferences have enabled the emergence of a so-called “sharing economy”. With new start-ups offering all kinds of services springing up every day, there...
Read MoreThe Future of Work in the ‘Sharing Economy’. Market Efficiency and Equitable Opportunities or Unfair Precarisation?
This critical and scoping review essay analyses digital labour markets where labour-intensive services are traded by matching requesters (employers and/or consumers) and providers (workers). It focuses on digital labour markets which allow the remote delivery of electronically transmittable services (i.e. Amazon Mechanical Turk, Upwork, Freelancers, etc.) and those where...
Read MoreIncome Security in the On-Demand Economy: Findings and policy lessons from a survey of crowdworkers
This article assesses the validity of many of the assumptions made about work in the on-demand economy and analyses whether proposals advanced for improving workers’ income security are sufficient for remedying current shortcomings. It draws on findings from a survey of crowdworkers conducted in late 2015 on the Amazon...
Read MoreDigital Labour and Development: impacts of global digital labour platforms and the gig economy on worker livelihoods
As ever more policy-makers, governments and organisations turn to the gig economy and digital labour as an economic development strategy to bring jobs to places that need them, it becomes important to understand better how this might influence the livelihoods of workers. Drawing on a multi-year study with digital...
Read MoreAutomation and Inequality: The changing world of work in the global South
This paper examines the relationship between rapid technological change, inequality and sustainable development. It asks how development processes can be shaped to provide decent, sustainable and inclusive work opportunities in low-income developing countries. In discussing this policy challenge, the paper seeks to stimulate thought and debate among a broad...
Read MoreNeglecting human rights: accountability, data and Sustainable Development Goal 3
In this paper we examine the Sustainable Development Goal 3 through the lens of state obligations to respect, protect and fulfil people’s human rights entitlements. We critique some of the Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “follow-up and review” arrangements for the health goal, SDG3. To assist in...
Read MoreWomen and the Cuts Toolkit: How to carry out a human rights and equality impact assessment of the spending cuts on women
This is a toolkit for trade unions, voluntary organisations, community groups and others who want to assess the human rights and equality impact of the spending cuts on women in their communities. Although the toolkit focuses on women and the cuts, much of the information it contains can be...
Read MoreReport of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context (A/HRC/37/53)
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context provides States and other actors with concrete guidance on implementing effective rights-based housing strategies. The report explains the...
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