The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UUSC's Work for Economic Justice

All people have the right to work, to safe and healthy working conditions, to equal pay for equal work, and the right to organize, ensuring for themselves and their families an existence worthy of human dignity.
_{— Adapted from articles 23 and 25, Universal Declaration of Human Rights}

On a quiet Saturday morning, you begin your day with a hot cup of coffee. As the aroma starts to wake you up, it stirs some questions in you: "Where does my coffee from? How did it get to my grocery store from a coffee farm in Guatemala or Ethiopia?" While you reflect on this, you change out of your pajamas into your favorite t-shirt and blue jeans. Then you notice the label on your jeans — "Made in Mexico" — and wonder, "Who sewed the seams on this denim? Who dyed my blue jeans?"

The global economy is a complex web of outsourced production and long, subcontracted supply chains. We can't shop for food, buy a pair of jeans, or order a cup of coffee without coming into contact with the contributions of workers from around the world. Yet many of these workers labor in unstable jobs, under unsafe conditions, for poverty-level wages, with women and children among the most vulnerable. So, for many people around the world, including in the United States, the human rights outlined in the Universal Declaration that protect workers exist only as empty promises.

Decent work is essential for reducing poverty and strengthening economic stability and global security. Yet around the world, safe, stable jobs that pay a living wage are becoming harder and harder to come by. As a result, millions of people face dangerous work conditions and inadequate wages that trap them in poverty, rather than lifting them out of it.

Few countries have policies that respect the needs or rights of workers in the informal economy. Informal workers, as they are sometimes called, are those who are not recognized or protected under legal and regulatory frameworks and are characterized by a high degree of vulnerability. They could be a street vendor selling cell phones in Kenya or a poultry-processing worker cutting chicken thighs in Mississippi.

In spite of this, workers around the globe are organizing to compel their governments and employers to recognize their rights and contributions. This organizing represents an opportunity to recognize the interdependence of all who work and share in our economy — and the need for interconnection between the people and movements that seek to ensure that the rights of workers are realized.

UUSC's Economic Justice Program supports these movements by developing eye-to-eye partnerships with grassroots groups that are helping to fulfill people's right to work in dignity for a living wage and organizing to defend those rights. These partners are based in the United States, China, Guatemala, Kenya, and Mexico.