Labour Rights as Human Rights: Advancing the Positivists’ Argument

What is it about?

In the literature that explains labour rights to be human rights, three dissimilar approaches namely: Instrumental Approach, Normative Approach and Positive Approach were identified. The Instrumental Approach views labour rights as human rights if either state or courts or civil society groups like NGO’s and trade unions succeed in endorsing them as such. The Normative Approach holds the view that human rights are rights conferred on human beings by the status of their humanity and concludes that labour rights do not have some key elements of human rights contained in this definition and for that reason should not be categorised as such. The Positivist Approach regards labour rights as human rights if the former (labour rights) are contained in human rights treaties The paper supported the Positive Approach and further developed it along the principle of indivisibility of rights expressed in human rights treaties. It used Amartya Sen’s view on indivisibility of rights as a framework and argued that some human rights instruments not only contain labour rights, but also propagate the indivisibility of rights and further argued that if rights are indivisible as expressed in such human rights treaties, then labour rights can be enforced as human rights. For this argument, it relied on the African (Banjul) Charter which expressed rights to be indivisible, universal and interdependent. The preamble to the African (Banjul) Charter emphasised the indivisibility and interdependence of human rights. The implication of regarding rights as indivisible and interdependent is that it supports the argument that labour rights are human rights if the language of indivisibility is expressed in a human right treaty.

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Photo by Shubham Verma on Unsplash

Photo by Shubham Verma on Unsplash

Why is it important?

A possible route through which labour rights can also be enforced

Perspectives