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Special rapporteur to UN: bring labour rights and human rights together

The state is the only force large enough to defend workers’ rights from big business, so why is it so often batting for the wrong team?

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UN Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai. United States Mission Geneva/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nd)

Maina Kiai, the United Nation’s special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, presented his fourth report to the UN General Assembly on 21 October 2016. Beyond Trafficking and Slavery caught up with Maina after his speech in the General Assembly and discussed, along with his colleague Amol Mehra of the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable, the main themes of the report as well as the window they see for the human rights and labour movements to finally come together.

Penelope Kyritsis (BTS): What should be the state’s role in protecting the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association in the workplace?