On April 10th, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) adopted the Resolution 1/2020 (http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/decisiones/pdf/Resolucion-1-20-es.pdf) by which it issued several recommendations to the governments of the states which are members of the Organization of American States (OAS) (which includes Mexico), in order to protect the human rights of its population in regard to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation.
The IACHR considering that the right to work, among other economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights are seriously affected and recognizing that companies have a key role to play in this situation and their conduct must be guided by the applicable principles and rules of human rights; specifically formulated, among others, the following recommendations which, if adopted by the Mexican government, could directly affect business activities in Mexico:
- Ensure the economic income and means of subsistence for the workers.
- Protection of jobs, wages and other social rights interrelated with the labor and union field.
- Equitable distribution and access to health facilities, goods and services, whether public or private.
- Ensure the access to medicine and health technologies, applying flexibility or exception politics in intellectual property rights.
- Ensure that financing and investment institutions implement guarantees to protect human rights in the risk assessment processes and operating systems related to investment projects or loans.
- Demand and monitor that the companies respect human rights and report back any possible abuses and negative impacts on them.
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