Violating Food System Workers' Rights in the Time of COVID-19: The Quest for State Accountability

Hilal Elver,Melissa Shapiro

doi:10.13169/statecrime.10.1.0080

Hilal Elver, Melissa Shapiro

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.13169/statecrime.10.1.0080

Copy DOI

Abstract

Food system workers, accounting for nearly one-third of the global workforce, are vital to the universal realization of the right to food, yet face formidable barriers to the realization of their own rights. Despite state obligations to protect, respect, and fulfil the rights of workers under international human rights law, gaps in legal frameworks and lack of political will have left food system workers exposed to discrimination and abuse at the hands of private actors. Migrant workers, as well as racial and ethnic minorities, in particular, face targeted exploitation without redress. Case studies demonstrate the extent of this harm, even as governments designate workers as “essential” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors of this article argue that deliberate inaction by states to extend meaningful protections to workers or indict exploitative actors demonstrates the need for a new state crime—one that holds accountable governments that are complicit in the grave violations of workers' fundamental rights.

Highlights

Food system1 workers are an underappreciated but vital part of food security that support state efforts to guarantee the realisation of human rights, including the right to food
Food system workers are often excluded from the agendas of global food policy-makers; yet it is individuals from this marginalized, ignored faction, who toil long hours in the fields, and on whose backs we have built the global trade of food
It is these workers who remain among the most food insecure, facing formidable barriers to the realization of their right to food

Summary

Introduction

Food system workers are an underappreciated but vital part of food security that support state efforts to guarantee the realisation of human rights, including the right to food. At the same time, food system workers tend to be among the most food insecure, facing formidable barriers to the realisation of their own rights (Elver 2018). Food system workers tend to be among the most food insecure, facing formidable barriers to the realisation of their own rights (Elver 2018) Migrant workers, especially those who are undocumented, and workers who are racial and ethnic minorities, are more likely to be subject to precarious conditions. Governments are turning a blind eye towards the corporate abuse of power and endorsing the status quo through public–private partnerships (Elver 2020: 69) This solidarity with those private sector actors disregarding the fundamental rights of food system workers signals to the rest of civil society that such behaviour is morally acceptable, but legally permissible

Objectives

Findings

Conclusion