The human rights enunciated in Articles 23 and 24 of the UDHR concern aspects of rights related to work. This part of international human rights law is often neglected in human rights textbooks and teaching, and indeed is often omitted from the work done by national human rights institutes and by NGOs concerned with human rights, as though it were a separate discipline that did not fall properly into the human rights field. This volume addresses this commonly held, but erroneous, misconception. There are aspects of labor-related rights in all the major human rights instruments and systems. While the International Labor Organization (ILO) is the primary body in this field, labor-related rights are also dealt with by the United Nations, the major regional organizations (such as the OAS and the EU), and the development banks (the World Bank and its regional counterparts). There are also provisions on labor rights in all the major international instruments, or they have been read to cover labor-related questions.
This volume, which reviews the development and implementation of Articles 23 and 24 of the UDHR, will spend most attention on the ILO, which is the premiere organization in this field, both chronologically and substantively. However, since a thorough and complete picture of human rights cannot be drawn without considering labor-related rights as an aspect of the broader human rights canon, the rest of the international system will also be brought in.