This year, Human Rights Watch has launched a research and advocacy project on violations of workers' freedom of association in the United States.  

The project will include case studies of migrant farmworkers, "sweatshop" laborers, and workers in service, manufacturing, and other sectors in different regions of the U.S. The investigation focuses on the rights to protest abusive treatment, to organize unions and bargain collectively, to strike, and to engage in assembly and expression.  

Intended for publication in 2000, the research involves extensive interviews with workers, organizers, advocates, employers, and government officials, and analyzes the U.S. experience in light of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization's core human rights conventions, and other instruments of human rights law.  

Analysts of American labor law and practice have mainly focused on domestic constitutional and statutory issues. This research is the first by an international human rights organization to examine U.S. law and practice under international human rights standards.  

Other websites of interest: the International Labor Rights Fund and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.