New book raises crucial questions on public procurement and human rights
Important new policy frameworks call on governments to ensure respect for human rights by businesses and to secure a transition to sustainable consumption. Public procurement accounts for a significant share of the global economy, and nearly 30% of government expenditure across OECD countries. But what are the obligations of the state to protect human rights when it acts as a buyer? And how can procurement be used to drive respect for human rights amongst government suppliers?
A new book, co-authored by Claire Methven O’Brien, chief adviser at the Danish Institute for Human Rights reflects on these questions, from the dual disciplinary perspectives of public procurement and human rights.
Olga Martin-Ortega and Claire Methven O’Brien have collected the most sophisticated legal analyses of the different issues faced when considering human rights in buying procedures as they arise in different legal environments. They have included deeply thought through case studies on actual practices already at work in most relevant sectors such as electronics and apparel. This book will enlighten academics and policy-makers and help practitioners. Overall, it is conveying a very important message: human rights must be taken seriously in public procurement procedures.
Public procurement - a driver for responsible business
Through legal analysis and practice-focused case studies, the expert contributors interrogate the role and potential of public procurement as a driver for responsible business conduct. Highlighting the character of public procurement as an interface for multiple normative regimes and competing policies, the book advances a compelling case for a shift to a new paradigm of sustainable procurement that embraces human rights as crucial to realising international policies such as those embodied in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
'Public Procurement and Human Rights' is an important read for both academics and students of human rights law, public procurement law, and business and human rights, as well as practitioners in public procurement and sustainability, and government officials.
The book will be published on May 15 by the Edvar Elgar Publishing.