The International Labour Organization (ILO) has launched a new global database on trade agreements containing labour provisions, paving the way for a more human-centred approach to trade policy. Labour provisions are obligations in trade agreements to protect and advance workers’ rights such as forced labour, racial and ethnic equality, and gender, including through different forms of cooperation and dialogue between trade unions, business organizations and the general public.
Aimed at policymakers, technical experts, and representatives of workers, employers and civil society, the Labour Provisions in Trade Agreements Hub (LP Hub) offers a comprehensive, structured compilation of the text of labour provisions in more than 100 regional trade agreements (RTAs) in about 140 economies.
Labour provisions are obligations in trade agreements to protect and advance workers' rights, including through different forms of cooperation and dialogue between trade unions, business organizations and the general public. Around half of trade agreements concluded in the last decade (2011-2020), contained labour provisions, compared to only 22 per cent in the previous decade (2001-2010).
The launch of the database follows increasing requests from governments, workers' and employers' organizations for a central data source for information, research, and comparative legal analysis.
Users will be able to navigate and analyse labour provisions across trade partners and over time, visualize data and trends, search for specific terms and download relevant information.
A key feature is the classification of labour provisions into categories, which allows users to locate key terms quickly and accurately within and across agreements.
By classifying labour provisions in RTAs the Hub helps users to:
gain a better understanding of the latest advances in the design and implementation of labour provisions;
deepen knowledge of specific templates and make comparisons across trade partners and regions;
acquire insights into stakeholder involvement, especially on the part of workers' and employers' and civil society representatives; and
monitor trends in labour provisions, globally and regionally.
See video on how it works:
The Hub allows users to navigate and analyse labour provisions in trade agreements through an interactive world map, trend graphs and tables with text. Search labour provisions by using a menu which allows to filter text by obligations, monitoring and cooperation, dispute settlement, and/or pre-post ratification activities. To narrow the results, use filters to search by trade partner or trade agreement. Table results below offer the possibility to explore the text of labour provisions, either by expanding the text within the table or by clicking on a trade agreement to obtain more information on a separate page.
Find the database here.
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