Social Rights, Health, and
Globalization:
an Unfinished Agenda
Timothy H. Holtz, MD, MPH, FACP
Social Medicine, Human Rights, and the Physician
Rollins School of Public Health
March 28, 2005
Outline
 Economic, social, cultural rights
 History of labor rights
 Overview of myths of growth, structural
adjustment, and globalization
 Role of transnational corporations (nonstate actors)
Civil/Political (CP) versus
Economic/Social/Cultural (ESC)?-1
 Dichotomy born from the cold war
 Economic/social/cultural rights are
actually quite old, but nonetheless
excluded from many discussions of
human rights in general
 1st/2nd/3rd generation issues are mute
 Is it an either/or situation?
 “East versus West” debate
Civil/Political (CP) versus
Economic/Social/Cultural (ESC)?-2
 Most human rights organizations have traditionally
focused on civil and political rights: arbitrary
detention, torture, disappearances, maltreatment in
prison
 Concept of human rights has been historically
narrowed to exclude social rights
 Only recently have human rights organizations
focused on ESC rights
 Center for Economic and Social Rights, NY
 Food First, CA
 Human Rights Watch, NY
The false dichotomy
 Most scholars now recognize civil vs
social/economic as interwoven, as
Roosevelt/Cassin intended them to be
 Interdependent
 Indivisible
 This has not, however, translated itself
into policy
What are economic rights?
 Right to a standard of living
 Right to work, just and favorable conditions of
work, protection against unemployment, fair
wages
 Right to social security
 Right to own property
 Freedom of peaceful assembly
What are social rights?




Right to marry and form a family
Freedom of religion/expression
Right to rest and leisure
Right to education
What are cultural rights?
 Everyone has the right to freely participate in
the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the
arts, and to share in scientific advancement
and its benefits. (Article 27, UDHR)
 Everyone is entitled to a social and
international order in which the rights and
freedoms set forth in the Declaration can be
fully realized. (Article 28, UDHR)
Cultural rights violations
 Yanomami Indians in Amazon and
“anthropologic” research – abuses of selfdetermination and respect for cultural values
 Amungme people on Irian Jaya, FreeportMcMoRan gold mines
 Peruvian Indians and oil drilling/Mobil
 Suppression of indigenous arts in South
Africa during apartheid
Labor Rights-1
 *Labour* rights are among the oldest
human rights in contemporary times
 Most well defined, easy to enforce
 Mentioned in all core documents
 UDHR Article 23
 ICESCR Articles 7, 8
 ICCPR Article 22
Labor Rights-2
 The International Labor Organization (ILO) is
one of the oldest human rights organizations
in the world, established at the Treaty of
Versailles in 1919
 ILO has 177 conventions covering all aspects
of labor rights standards
 Membership organization (like UN)
 Conventions are binding to signatory states
 Conducts investigations, writes reports
 US a member from 1934-1977, 1980-present
Labor Rights-3
ILO Conventions
 No. 87 - Freedom of association – often the first human
right to be violated in a repressive regime, can be used
as a litmus test for the status of human rights in general
 No. 98 - Freedom to organize and bargain collectively
 No. 105 - Freedom from forced labor (only core
convention signed by US, which has signed only 12)
 Governments do not pay as much attention to these
conventions as the UN conventions
 Why? Trade unionists are deeply involved in local
economic issues and have a pragmatic approach to
solving them
Labor Rights-4
Core labor rights found in ICCPR,
ICESCR, and ILO
 Right to work
 Right to just and favorable conditions of work
(wages and safe workplace)
 Right to protection against unemployment
 Right to equal pay for equal work
 Right to form trade unions
 Right to reasonable limitation of working
hours
 Right not to be subjected to forced labor
Labor rights violations and health
 Assassination/murder
 Workplace injuries: deaths on the job
 Repetitive motion injuries – carpal tunnel
syndrome
 Testing female workers for pregnancy as
condition of work (maquiladoras)
 Using prisoners for labor – health effects of
poor working conditions (good examples in
China, but also “chain gangs” in the US)
Is poverty a human
rights violation?
Economic rights - Gross inequality
 The top quintile (20%) of the world’s people
living in the high income countries control:
 86% of world gross domestic product (GDP)
 82% of the world’s export markets
 68% of foreign direct investment
 The bottom quintile (20%) of the world’s
poorest countries control less than 1% in
each category.
1999 Human Development Report, UN Development Program
The real rich
 The 200 richest people in the world
more than doubled their net worth in the
four years prior to 1998, to $1 trillion.
 The wealth of the richest 225 people in
the world is greater than the collective
wealth of 2.5 billion people (47% of the
world’s population).
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Where are they?
 Of the 225 richest individuals in the
world:
 60 come from the United States
 21 come from Germany
 14 come from Japan
 147 live in developed countries
 78 live in developing countries
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Worsening inequality in the US
Left Business Observer
Disparities in wealth are reflective
of disparities in political power
Mass deprivation
 1.3 billion people live on less than $1/day.
 3 billion people live on less than $2/day.
 11% of people in developed countries live on
less than $14.40/day.
 2.6 billion without access to adequate
sanitation
 2 billion deprived of electricity
 1 billion without adequate shelter
 840 million malnourished
 880 million without access to medical care
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Consumption vs Priorities?
 Cosmetics in the US –
$8 billion
 Ice cream in Europe $11 billion
 Perfumes in US/Eur $12 billion
 Pet foods in US/Eur $17 billion
 Cigarettes in Europe $50 billion
 Basic education for all –
$6 billion
 Water and sanitation for all $9 billion
 Repr. health for all women $12 billion
 Basic health/nutrition for all$13 billion
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Inequality in spending on health
($ expenditure per capita, 1990)
 Top five countries
USA
$2,765
Switzerland $2,520
Sweden
$2,343
Finland
$2,046
Canada
$1,945
 Bottom five countries
Vietnam
$3
Sierra Leone
$4
Tanzania
$4
Laos
$5
Mozambique
$5
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
ESC rights violations
 Government action or inaction leading to poverty, or
failing to respond to conditions that create,
exacerbate, or perpetuate poverty are “reflective” or
“connected” to human rights violations.
 Governments should be accountable for
progressively correcting conditions that impede
achieving the right to health
 Strive for equal opportunity in health for those who
have suffered marginalization (equity/HR/SJ angle)
 Address disparities in underlying conditions –
class/SES status, education, env. conditions –
without ignoring the links between poverty and ill
health, and that those can be ameliorated
What do social rights violations
have to do with health?
The burden of ill-health
 Five million die per year of diarrheal
diseases
 Three million die per year of TB
 Two million die per year of malaria
 Nearly 50 million HIV infected persons
by the year 2000 (roughly 90% in
developing countries)
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Life expectancy differentials
(years)
Highest life expectancy:
Cyprus
77
Costa Rica
77
Barbados
76
Cuba
76
Chile
75
Lowest life expectancy:
Rwanda
28
Sierra Leone
35
Uganda
41
Zambia
43
Afghanistan
45
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Under-five mortality differentials
(per 1,000 live births)
Lowest under-five
mortality rates:
Korea, Rep of
Cuba
Jamaica
Malaysia
Chile
7
10
13
13
14
Highest under-five
mortality rates:
Niger
Sierra Leone
Mali
Mozambique
Malawi
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
320
284
225
220
219
Causes of death, 1990
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Communicable
Disease
Non-communicable
diseases
Injuries
Global
poorest
20%
World
average
Global
richest
20%
Gwatkin DR, Guillot M, Heuveline P. The burden of disease
among the global poor. Lancet 1999; 354: 586-9.
What’s behind all this inequality and
imbalance of disease prevalence?
What is this concept of “globalization”
we hear about every day? What does it
mean that we live in a “global economy.”
Does anyone know what that really
means?
Globalization
“Globalization is the growing interdependence of
the world’s people through shrinking space,
shrinking time, and disappearing borders.”
Markets, the HDR states, have been allowed to
dominate the process, and the benefits and
opportunities have not been shared equally.
The result is that “global inequalities in income
and living standards have reached grotesque
proportions.”
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Globalization is….
“When the profit motives of market players get out
of hand, they challenge people’s ethics – and
sacrifice respect for justice and human rights.”
“More progress has been made in norms,
standards and policies for open global markets
than for people and their rights.”
“Patent laws pay little attention to the knowledge of
indigenous people. The result – a silent theft of
centuries of knowledge from developing to
developed countries.”
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Globalization also is...
 “The collapse of space, time, and borders
may be creating a global village, but not
everyone can be a citizen. The global,
professional elite now faces low borders, but
billions of others find borders as high as
ever.”
 “The new rules of globalization – and the
players writing them – focus on integrating
global markets, neglecting the needs of
people that markets cannot meet. The
process is concentrating power and
marginalizing the poor.”
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
Free markets make free men.
Milton Friedman
University of Chicago
Nobel Laureate, Neoliberal Economics
Rats and roaches live by
competition under the laws of
supply and demand; it is the
privilege of human beings to live
under the laws of justice and mercy.
Wendell Berry
Growth
 Myth: neoliberal capitalism is the only
way to achieve economic growth (Does
everyone “know this to be true?”)
 Myth: Growth will automatically translate
into greater prosperity for all
 Myth: Growth is an sufficient objective
 Myth: Economic laws and markets
function independently of politics
Golden Age of Growth
 1945-1970 was golden age of capitalism,
industrialized countries grew at 5% annually
 Managed growth by governments (Keynes)
 High trade flows, low currency flows (restrict
mobility of capital)
 Oil crisis of 1973 heralded end of age
 Stagflation (high rates of inflation and
unemployment)
 Election of anti-state governments in UK and
US
Development
 Is economic growth necessary for social
development?
 GDP growth remains dogma, most
commonly used indicator to measure
our progress in reducing poverty
GNP and life expectancy
1979 Data
GNP and life expectancy
GNP per capita and Life Expectancy at Birth, 1994
74
$7,000
$6,000
$5,000
$4,000
$3,000
$2,000
$1,000
$-
52
Kerala
China
Sri Lanka Namibia
GNPpc
Brazil
S. Africa
Gabon
Life Exp.
From Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen 1999. Figures from Country Data World Bank, World Bank
Development Report, 1996
Debt crisis of 1982 (to present)
 Commercial banks loaned vast amounts of
capital to developing nations at high
interested rates, not predicting….
 Changes in international economy
 Expanded bank lending fueld by oil
 Increased government borrowing
…many countries stretched to thin - July 1982
Mexico defaults, heralding beginning of crisis
The crippling burden of debt
 Countries of Sub-Saharan Africa spent an average of
$12 billion annually on debt repayments from 19901995, while their total debt increased by $33 billion.
 For 27 highly- indebted nations, debt is greater than
their GNP.
 Tanzania’s debt service payments are nine times what
it spends on primary health care and four times what it
spends on primary education.
 Mozambique has a debt burden nine times the value
of its exports.
1998/9 Human Development Report, UN Development Program
Neoliberal diagnosis
 State playing too large a role
 Markets are being inhibited, state
intervention is preventing markets from
being efficient
 Government should stick only to
property rights and enforcing contracts
International Financial Institutions
 “Bretton Woods Institutions,” NH, July 1944
 World Bank (WB)
 Support embedded liberalism
 “Free trade”, restrictions on capital mobility, and
domestic social contract
 Provided loans to countries for development
projects
 International Monetary Fund (IMF)
 Prevent currency fluctuations/devaluations
 Contain 1930-style economic crisis
 GATT – General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade
Neoliberal prescription
 Reduce role of state relative to the market
 Allow floating currency rates, and wages to
be determined by market forces and interest
rates
 Lift all barriers to trade and investment
(opposite of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” –
free movement of labor but not capital)
World Bank program of “Structural Adjustment” of
the world’s poorest countries
 Re-orienting economies toward export production,
away from self sufficiency
 Removing restrictions on foreign investment
 Reduction of wages
 Cutting tariffs
 Imposing consumption taxes (value added tax/VAT)
 Eliminating price subsidies on essentials like food
and housing
 Devaluing local currency
 Privatizing state enterprises
 Deregulating gov’t oversight of economic activity
Structural adjustment report card
 75 countries had received loans by 1991
 30 in SSA, 18 in Latin America
 Overal debt increased, both official debt and
commercial debt
 Did not reduce debt, reduce poverty, or
increase growth
 New category HIPC – Bolivia, Burkina, Ivory
Coast, Guyana, Moz, Uganda
What are the health effects of the
IFIs?
 ESAFs have failed to significantly raise GDP
of participating countries
 ESAFs have failed to reduce external debt
burden of most highly indebted countries
 Social safety nets are nonexistent: for
education, health, housing, social security
 “Cost-effectiveness” calculus further hurts the
most vulnerable populations, violates their
social rights, and results in continued
stagnating health outcomes
The crippling burden of debt
 Countries of Sub-Saharan Africa spent an average of
$12 billion annually on debt repayments from 19901995, while their total debt increased by $33 billion.
 For 27 highly- indebted nations, debt is greater than
their GNP.
 Tanzania’s debt service payments are nine times what
it spends on primary health care and four times what it
spends on primary education.
 Mozambique has a debt burden nine times the value
of its exports.
1998/9 Human Development Report, UN Development Program
New poverty agenda - 1990
 Labor intensive growth, invest in human
capital, promote social safety nets
 Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility
(ESAF)
 Progress has still not been achieved, as
documented by Weisbrot et al.
Growth for whom?
 Only 33 countries achieved sustained three
percent annual growth in gross national
product (GNP) per capita during 1980-1996.
 For 59 countries, mainly in sub-Saharan
Africa and the countries of the former Eastern
Bloc, GNP per capita declined from 1980 to
1996.
1998/9 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
For many peoples of the third world, globalization is just the
latest buzzword for late 20th century neoliberal capitalism






Promotion of “free markets”
Relaxation of trade barriers
Reduction of subsidies for the poor
Privatization of public assets
Weakened role of government
Growing dominance of western-based
transnational capital
 Continued high military expenditures
The “global economy”
 Growth of “free trade”
 Role of transnational corporations
 Accelerated capital flows and impacts of
privatization
 Diminished aid from the West
1.1 World Trade: separate worlds
 48 poorest countries account for 0.4%
of global exports
 Share of world’s exports by least
developed nations fell from 15% in 1968
to 13% in 1998
 Transnational trade (globalized
economy) reaches AT MOST only 1/3 of
the world’s population
1.2 “Free trade”
 More trade between nations in late
1800s than there is now
 46% of world trade is between EU, US,
and Japan (OECD)
 Actually 30-40% of “trade” consists of
transactions within same TNC, trading
with their own affiliates
1.3 More on trade
 Most new manufacturing growth comes from
NICs (SK, HK, RoC, Sing.)
 Single commodity exports account for half of
export earnings for many countries
 And besides, the US, S Korea, Taiwan, Japan
ALL developed under restricted and
protective trade laws
1.4 World Trade Organization
 WTO created in 1990 to supersede GATT
 Set up to manage world trade system
 Extensive set of regulations and rules are
required (free is a misnomer)
 Many argue these rules are set up to benefit
the powerful, the TNCs, big finance capital
from West
 All meetings held closed door
2. TNCs
 Consist of the largest economies in the
world
 TNCs have expanded due to
communication, transportation
technology, and shift to export oriented
development strategies
3.1 Global finance capital
 Dramatic increase in movement of
capital
 Principle of free trade to capital?
 Daily trading in foreign exchange is over
$2 trillion per day
 Control of capital is increasingly
centralized
3.2 Foreign Direct Investment:
skewed away from the poor
 FDI is dominated by TNCs
 FDI in developing countries increased from
$18.3 billion in 1983 to $149 billion in 1997
(out of a total of $400 billion)
 FDI is highly concentrated: 80% went to only
10 developing countries
 The 100 smallest countries received less than
1% of worldwide FDI
 Only 5% of FDI to developing countries goes
to Africa
4.1 Diminishing aid from the West
 US is steadily decreasing its annual
contribution in foreign aid, which is now
below 0.5% of US annual GNP
 Many other countries, especially
Scandinavia, devote much higher
percentages of their GNP for foreign aid
source: New York Times, October, 1997
Investing in Health,
World Bank 1993
 Promoted cost-efficiency approach to health
care in developing countries in a world awash
with capital.
 Medical care defined as a commodity, and
health defined as the absence of disease.
 The concept of disability adjusted life years
(DALYs) promoted.
 Marked the entry of the World Bank in funding
large health care projects in poor countries,
such as vertical vaccine campaigns, TB
control, etc.
Do we really live in a “global
village”?
*Marshall McLuhan
Source: Adbusters
“I see in the near future a crisis approaching
that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for
the safety of my country. Corporations have
been enthroned and an era of corruption in high
places will follow, and the money power of the
country will endeavor to prolong its reign by
working upon the prejudices of the people until
all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the
Republic is destroyed.”
President Abraham Lincoln, November 21,
1864, letter to Colonel William F. Elkins.
Takeover in Nigeria
 150 Ugborodo and Arutan women successfully shut
down a Chevron/Texaco oil plant in Escavros for
several weeks in June/July 2002 by occupying an
pipeline terminal, trapping 150 workers inside
 Demands: Jobs for locals and electricity for their
villages
 Damage to Nigerian environment and health of
villagers throughout Niger River Delta from oil and
gas drilling is extensive
New York Times, July 14, 2002, Foreign Desk
Gas flaring in Ogoniland,
Niger River Delta,
December 2002
Credit: Owens Wiwa
Transnational Corporations
TNCs
 “Non-state actors”
 Characteristics




Economic power
International character
Impact of activities
Regulatory difficulty in LDCs
Transnational capital flows
 Currency flows reach trillions of dollars every
day, mainly between developed countries.
 Foreign direct investment (FDI) reached $400
billion in 1997, but 58% of it went to
developed nations, and just 5% to the
transition economies of Central and Eastern
Europe.
 Of the FDI that went to developing countries
in the 1990s, more than 80% went to just 20
countries, and mainly to China.
1999 Human Development Report,
UN Development Program
TNC Economic Power-1
 Industrialized countries control 97% of
all patents worldwide.
 The top ten transnational corporations
in each field control:
 86% of telecommunications
 85% of pesticides
 70% of computer production
 35% of pharmaceuticals
1999 Human Development Report,
TNC Economic Power-2
 Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51
are corporations (sales versus gross
domestic product/GDP)
 The top 200 corporations’ sales are growing
at a faster rate than global economic activity
 The top 200s’ combined sales are 18 times
the size of the combined annual income of
1.2 billion people living in severe poverty
 US firms dominate the top 200 (82), while
Japanese firms are second with 41
TNC Economic Power-3
 The sales of the Top 200 are the equivalent of
28% of world economic activity, they only
employ 0.8% of the world’s workforce
 Between 1983 and 1999 Top 200 profits grew
by 362%, but employment grew by only 14%
 44 of 82 US Corporations in the Top 200 did
not pay full taxes; Seven actually paid <0% Texaco, Chevron, Pepsico, Enron, McKesson,
Wal-Mart
TNC International Character-1
 The top corporations earn 40-50% of their
yearly profits from sales overseas
 Assets of TNCs are also located overseas,
33% of pharmaceutical industry, and 75% of
electrical industry
 Many examples of individual factories and
entire industries moving overseas to benefit
from reduced wages, lower standards, higher
profit margin
HR Impact of TNC Activities-1
 Civil and political violations





Violate right to self-determination
Violate freedom of association
Perpetuate racial discrimination
Genocide against indigenous peoples
Violate right of people to dispose of the natural
wealth
 Bodily harm to people opposed to TNC by security
forces
HR Impact of TNC Activities-2
 Violations of ESC rights
 Right to work freely chosen
 Right to just and favorable working conditions, fair
wages, equal pay for equal work, safe and health
working conditions, reasonable limit on working
hours
 Right to education
 Right of children to be protected from economic
and social exploitation
 Right to an adequate standard of living for
individuals and their families
HR Impact of TNC Activities-3
 Indirect impact
 Pursuit of export oriented economic
policies
 Destruction of environment
 Urbanization
 Engaging in business with repressive
regimes
TNCs and Repressive Regimes
 Loans to repressive regimes
 Breaking sanctions against repressive
regimes
 Buying from repressive regimes
 Selling to repressive regimes
 Lending credibility to repressive regimes
Health and Human Rights Impact
of TNC Activities-1
 Oil/power exploration
 Texaco-Gulf in Ecuador – environmental
destruction
 BP in Colombia – private security abuses
 Royal Dutch Shell in the Niger Delta – murder and
environmental destruction
 Mining industry
 Freeport-MacMoRan in PNG – mine tailings
 Chemical Industry
 Union Carbide - Bhopal Disaster 1984
 Manufacturing industry
 Wal-Mart, Disney, K-Mart, Kathy Lee Gifford
Health Impact of TNC Activities-2
 Maquiladora sector on US-Mexican border has
blossomed to over 2,500 factories
 Assembly plants, part of export processing strategy
to develop Mexico (though most people there live in
squalor)
 90% are owned by US corporations, though often
subcontracted work; Korean corporations also
common
 Preferential tariffs, low taxation, lax environmental
standards
Health Impact of TNC Activities-3
 Maquiladora sector characterized by low wages, poor
working conditions, environmental abuse, poor
infrastructure
 Human rights issues center around fair wages, right
to organize, hazardous working conditions, disclosure
of hazardous waste, safety training, infrequent
occupational inspections, occupational compensation
for injury, sexual harassment, child labor, housing
conditions
 Health issues center around repetitive strain,
noise/solvent/toxic waste pollution, miscarriages, skin
disorders, pulmonary disease/asthma, depression
Approaches to regulate TNC
abuses
 “Social Responsibility” approach
 Promotional, use rational persuasion and moral
argumentation
 TNCs to sign corporate codes of conduct
 “Social Accountability” approach
 TNCs can’t self-monitor, need independent accounting
 “Economic threat” approach
 TNCs only respond when profits threatened with boycotts,
etc.
 “Punitive” approach
 Sanctions, selective purchasing laws, divestment campaigns
Regulating TNCs-1
 Commission on Transnational Corporations in 1975
formed draft code – focused on bribery, disclosure of
dangerous processes, and export of hazardous
products and factories
 Blocked by Reagan administration and died a sudden
death
 As “Non-state actors” they cannot be held
accountable to same standards as states in UN
 Voluntary codes exist, but no enforcement
 Declaration and Guidelines on International Investments and
Transnational Enterprises (OECD)
 Tripartite Declaration on Principles of Transnational
Enterprises and Social Policy (ILO)
 WHO/UNICEF code on infant formula marketing
TNC Response to Criticism




Avoidance
Resistance
Acquiescence
Compromise
Corporate Codes of Conduct
Bare essentials
 Employment standards – nondiscrimination, working hours,
compulsory labor, fair wages, child labor, freedom of
association, healthy workplace guidelines, excessive
punishment guidelines
 Environmental standards – protection of biosphere, energy
conservation, sustainable use of resources, risk reduction,
disposal of waste
 Internal compliance regulations – personnel to monitor
compliance, business partners to abide by standards
(outsourcing), audit instruments to be used on site
 Country assessment guidelines – assessment of performance of
all affiliates, gathering information from all sources
 Independent monitoring
Amnesty International HR
Principles for TNCs/companies-1





Explicit company policy/UDHR
Security/law enforcement policy
Community engagement
Freedom from discrimination
Freedom from slavery
HR Principles for Companies, Amnesty International
HR Principles for
TNCs/companies-2
 Healthy and safe work environment
 Freedom of association and right to
collective bargaining
 Just and favorable working conditions,
including security and fair
compensation/wages
 Freedom from child labor
 Monitoring human rights policy
HR Principles for Companies, Amnesty International
Corporate Codes of Conduct
Current problems
 Lack of uniform language
 Lack of compulsory enforcement
mechanisms
 Lack of language on sexual harassment
 Fair wage/living wage clauses often
inadequate and vague
 Codes do not cover contractors and
outsourcers
 ***Lack of independent monitoring***
“People say, what is the sense of our
small effort? They cannot see that we
must lay one brick at a time, take one
step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond
causes ripples that spread in all
directions. Each one of our thoughts,
words, and deeds is like that. No one
has the right to sit down and feel
hopeless. There is so much work to do!”
-- Dorothy Day
Summary
 Civil-Political rights and Social-EconomicCultural rights are interdependent and
indivisible, cannot have one without the other
 Labor rights have long standing tradition in
the human rights field
 Globalization brings with it many human
rights issues not generally discussed
 Transnational corporations and other nonstate actors have health and human rights
impacts that should and can be monitored