Protecting Human Rights in Informal Employment

Through national constitutions and international treaties, countries have committed to guaranteeing human rights – which include rights to work and rights at work. Yet guidance on the actions governments should take, and the standards they must meet, to guarantee these rights to workers in informal employment remain underdeveloped.

Our advocacy with national, regional and international mechanisms mandated to protect and promote human rights seeks to change this. Latin America has been a key focus for this work. Since 2017, we have sought improvements for waste pickers through advocacy with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. We also contribute to partner-led initiatives to hold governments and other powerful actors accountable for violations of informally employed workers’ rights.

ActivitiesEngagement with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) is the institution charged with promoting and protecting human rights across the region. Since 2019, we have collaborated with the Commission’s Rapporteurship on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights (REDESCA) to advocate for greater focus on the rights of workers in informal employment – in particular waste pickers and street vendors.

As a result, the REDESCA visited waste pickers in Perú, México, Costa Rica, Panamá, Argentina and Uruguay; the IACHR issued a Labour Day press release; and – most significantly – the IACHR held a public hearing on the rights of workers in informal employment in its 187th Period of Sessions, enabling the forum to hear directly from waste pickers about the challenges they face in the work they do.

ActivitiesSix-Country Study on the Rights of Waste Pickers

Between 2017 and 2019, we documented the human rights situation of waste pickers through field visits to worker organizations in six countries in Latin America: Argentina, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay. and. The findings were detailed in reports and, on the basis of these, a legal assessment was done, which concluded that the working conditions that this occupational group faces in Latin America violates their rights under the American Convention of Human Rights and the Protocol of San Salvador.

The assessment was presented to the IACHR and included in the Annual Report of the REDESCA in 2019 and 2021. This was the first time the IACHR had expressed its opinion on the human rights of waste pickers.

ActivitiesPopular Education Toolkit for Waste Pickers

To ensure that the findings from our visits to waste picker organizations across Latin America could support worker organizing, we published popular human rights education materials in 2018. This toolkit includes a guide to identifying the violation of rights, a snakes and ladders game, memory game, comic book and poster. It is designed to be both a self-guided resource and a resource for facilitators accompanying worker organizations to build knowledge of their rights.