Human Rights Labor Rights & International Trade

Contributors to Human Rights, Labor Rights, and International Trade provide the first comprehensive view of labor rights in the international trade system and the avenues open to worker rights claims in the global economy under international human rights instruments, U.S. trade laws, free trade agreements, labor rights litigation, and corporate codes of conduct. They address worker rights from the standpoints of human rights concerns, trade and development policy, and labor law principles. Developments in the global economy - including the European Union and the ILO; NAFTA; GATT and the new WTO; and the Japanese organization of the Pacific Rim - create issues regarding migration patterns, resource conservation and environmental protection, foreign policy, and labor. Combining the rarefied atmosphere of human rights theory with the nitty-gritty details of worker organizing, this book addresses the issue of distinguishing which worker and trade union rights are fundamental human rights and which are really assertions of privileges or claims for benefits.