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INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

LABOR RIGHTS

CORPORATIONS
FINANCE
TRADE & IP
ENVIRONMENT
WARFARE

DEMOCRATIZING WORK GLOBAL INITIATIVE

HUMAN RIGHT TO ECONOMIC & WORKPLACE DEMOCRACY

Elizabeth Anderson: "The constitution of workplace government is both arbitrary and dictatorial." "The state has established the constitution of the government of the workplace."

Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It). (Princeton University Press, 2017), pp. 64, 54.

W. E. B. Du Bois: "More important than political democracy is industrial democracy; that is, the voice which the actual worker, whether his [sic] work be manual or mental, has in the organization and the conduct of industry. The organization of industry is of first importance in the state and determines its political pattern." (Color and Democracy, 1945)

Glenn Plumb: “The promise of industrial democracy. The words are misleading. They imply that there may be two kinds of democracy—political democracy and industrial democracy. There can not be two kinds of democracy, there can only be one. It is impossible that we should have democracy in government and no democracy in industry; it is equally impossible that we should have democracy in industry without the same freedom in government.” (1921)

Justice Louis D. Brandeis: “The end for which we must strive is the attainment of rule by the people, and that involves industrial democracy as well as political democracy ... the right to assist in making the decisions ... not merely a right to be heard.” (1934)

Teddy Roosevelt: “Our aim should be to make this as far as may be not merely a political, but an industrial democracy.” (1912)

Albert Gallatin, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury: "The democratic principle upon which this Nation was founded should not be restricted to the political processes but should be applied to the industrial operation." (1795)

John Stuart Mill: “The co-operative principle ... would realize, at least in the industrial department, the best aspirations of the democratic spirit." "The form of association, however, which if mankind [sic] continue to improve, must be expected in the end to predominate, is not that which can exist between a capitalist as chief, and work-people without a voice in the management, but the association of the labourers themselves on terms of equality, collectively owning the capital with which they carry on their operations, and working under managers elected and removable by themselves.” (Principles of Political Economy, 1848)

Woodrow Wilson, U.S. congressional address: “The object of all reform in this essential matter must be the genuine democratization of industry based upon a full recognition of those who work, in whatever rank, to participate in some organic way in every decision which affects their welfare or the part they play in industry.” (1919)

ILO CONSTITUTION (adopted by the Paris Peace Conference on 1 April 1919, entered into force as Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919, as amended)

English | French | Spanish 

Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles (Avalon, ILO) | ILO Member States 

ILO DECLARATION OF PHILADELPHIA – DECLARATION CONCERNING THE AIMS AND PURPOSES OF THE ILO (adopted May 10, 1944, adopted as an annex to and integral part of the ILO Constitution on 9 October 1946, entered into force 20 April 1948)

English | French | Spanish | Background 1 , Background 2 

ILO EMPLOYMENT POLICY CONVENTION, 1964 (No. 122) (adopted 9 July 1964, entered into force 15 July 1966)

English | French 

OECD AND EUROPEAN FULL EMPLOYMENT

ILO PROMOTION OF COOPERATIVES RECOMMENDATION (R193) (adopted 20 June 2002)

Arabic | ChineseEnglish | French | German | RussianSpanish 

CEDAW – Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (adopted 18 December 1979, entered into force 3 September 1981)

(a) To participate in the elaboration and implementation of development planning at all levels; ...

(e) To organize ... co-operatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities."

Authentic Languages Texts (Certified True Copy): ArabicChinese | English | French | Russian | Spanish

Committee (CEDAW) | General RecommendationsJurisprudenceStates Parties | VoteTravaux (U. of Virginia)Travaux (Rehof) | Commentary 

UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Resolution 72/143, "Cooperatives in Social Development" (19 December 2017)

Resolution 49/155, "The Role of Cooperatives in the Light of New Economic and Social Trends" (7 February 1995)

Resolution 47/90, "The Role of Cooperatives in the Light of New Economic and Social Trends" (22 March 1993)

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE ALLIANCE

Guidance Notes on the Cooperative Principles (2017)

World Declaration on Worker Cooperatives (23 September 2005)

Statement on the Cooperative Identity (1995) (excerpt is annex to ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation (R193)

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