Obligations of UAE Authorities under International Law and International Standards of Corporate Responsibility

A comprehensive body of international law protecting workers' rights has been developed over the past 90 years since the establishment of the International Labour Organization. These standards apply to all workers in the country, both foreign and citizens. In most cases, a government's obligation is to ensure that employers respect the rights of workers by law, regulation, investigation, prosecution, and sanction, as appropriate.

International Legal Obligations of UAE Authorities

The UAE is a member of the ILO and has ratified six of the eight core ILO conventions, namely the conventions relating to elimination of forced and compulsory labor, elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation, and abolition of child labor. The UAE has also ratified ILO Convention No. 1 on hours of work, Convention No. 81 on labor inspection, and Convention No. 89 on night work (women).[232]

The UAE should ratify the two core ILO conventions on freedom of association, the right to organize and collective bargaining (No. 87 and 98).[233] Although it has not done so, the UAE is nonetheless obliged, as a member of the ILO, to respect "general rules which have been established for the common good.... Among these principles, freedom of association has become a customary rule above the Conventions."[234] As the ILO emphasized in its 1998 Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work:

[A]ll members, even if they have not ratified the Conventions in question, have an obligation arising from the very fact of membership in the Organization, to respect, to promote, and to realize, in good faith and in accordance with the [ILO] Constitution, the principles concerning the fundamental rights which are the subject of those Conventions, namely: (a) freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining...[235]

The UAE is therefore required to promote and realize the right of "all workers ... freely to form and join groups for the promotion and defence of their occupational interests."[236] As a member of the ILO, the UAE must allow workers' organizations to establish their own rules, operate freely, and elect their representatives in full freedom, and such organizations must be truly independent and free of external interference.[237] In addition, the ILO requires member states to incorporate the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining into their legal frameworks.[238] The UAE therefore needs to ratify the International Labour Organization's Conventions No. 87 and No. 98 on freedom of association and collective bargaining, and amend UAE labor law to incorporate the conventions' protections.

The UAE is also obliged to protect workers' right to strike, which the ILO's Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations in 1994 described as "an intrinsic corollary of the right to organize."[239]

As a step towards addressing serious concerns regarding the health and safety of workers, the UAE should consider ratifying ILO Convention No. 155 on workers' occupational health and safety.[240] The convention requires government authorities to ensure "the publication, annually, of information on ... occupational accidents, occupational diseases and other injuries to health which arise in the course of or in connection with work." It calls for "the enforcement of laws and regulations concerning occupational safety and health" and urges "the holding of inquiries, where cases of occupational accidents... or any other injuries to health which arise in the course of or in connection with work appear to reflect situations which are serious." The convention also urges states parties to "formulate, implement and periodically review a coherent national policy on occupational safety, occupational health and the working environment."

The UAE should also ratify key human rights treaties, whose provisions protect workers' rights. It is one of a very small group of countries to have ratified neither of the major human rights covenants. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognizes "the right of everyone to form trade unions and join the trade union of his choice, subject only to the rules of the organization concerned, for the promotion and protection of his economic and social interests" and "the right to strike."[241] The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees the right to freedom of association by stating, "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests."[242] The ICESCR also specifies "the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favorable conditions of work which ensures, in particular... safe and healthy working conditions."[243]

The UAE should also ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and incorporating the convention's provisions into domestic labor law to provide migrant workers the protections they are due under international law. The convention expressly prohibits employers from confiscating migrant workers' passports or work permits (Article 21).

Corporate Social Responsibility

International human rights instruments, which guarantee all people equal and inalienable rights by virtue of their inherent human dignity, pay particular attention to the role of states, as the primary duty holders under international law, in upholding these rights.[244] The state's role includes protecting individuals and communities from human rights abuses committed by businesses and other non-state actors. Businesses and other actors, however, also have responsibilities. As the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) phrases it, "every organ of society" does.[245] In addition, companies may be bound by international human rights standards, including labor standards, insofar as such standards have been incorporated into domestic legislation in the countries in whose jurisdictions the companies operate.

The basic principle that companies have a responsibility to respect human rights, including workers' rights, has achieved wide recognition at the international level. For example, it is reflected in the United Nations (UN) Global Compact,[246] the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (OECD Guidelines),[247] the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles),[248] and resolutions of the United Nations Human Rights Council and its precursor, the Commission on Human Rights.[249]

Although an international consensus has taken shape that companies have a responsibility to respect workers' human rights, broad agreement does not extend to the important questions of how to ensure that companies uphold this responsibility in practice and that they do so everywhere they operate.[250] Instead, the UN and other international organizations have developed various norms and guidelines, which draw from international human rights and labor laws, that are intended to guide businesses in their operations and projects. Some of these standards are elaborated here, for the purpose of illustration.

The UN Global Compact is a voluntary initiative under which companies to pledge their adherence to ten "universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption" deriving from, among other texts, the UDHR and the ILO's Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work,[251] and commit to "align their operations and strategies" with these principles.[252] The principles include:

Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

Principle 2: make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.  

Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour.

Of the construction companies Human Rights Watch identified as working on Saadiyat Island – Arabtec, al-Habtoor, al-Jaber, Leighton, Saif bin Darwish, and Zueblin – only Arabtec Construction LLC is a member of the UN Global Compact, according to the Compact's searchable database of participants.[253]  Abu Dhabi National Hotels / Compass, TDIC, the Guggenheim Foundation, Gehry Partners, Tadao Ando Architects and Associates, Zaha Hadid Architects, Foster and Partners, Ateliers Jean Nouvel are not participants in the Compact, either, according to the Compact's website. New York University is not among the Compact's academic participants.[254] Agence France-Muséums is not a public sector participant (unlike, for example, the Agence Francaise de Developpement).[255] Companies and other institutions operating on Saadiyat Island should consider joining the Compact, and implementing its principles.

The ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles stands as a further initiative, in its case to recommend standards of conduct for multinational corporations and others "in the fields of employment, training, conditions of work and life and industrial relations" while operating in foreign countries.[256] It addresses conditions of work and life, as well as freedom of association and collective bargaining, among other worker rights.[257] For example, regarding worker safety, the Tripartite Declaration stated: "Multinational enterprises should maintain the highest standards of safety and health, in conformity with national requirements, bearing in mind their relevant experience within the enterprise as a whole, including any knowledge of special hazards."[258]

Another set of principles relevant to multinational construction companies and other businesses operating on are the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, which comprise "recommendations on responsible business conduct addressed by governments to multinational enterprises."[259] They apply to companies in or from the 30 member countries of the OECD and 11 additional, non-OECD countries. The guidelines are addressed to all parent and local entities within multinational enterprises (MNEs), which are defined broadly as private or state "companies or other entities established in more than one country and so linked that they may co-ordinate their operations in various ways."[260] MNEs addressed in this report that are based in OECD member countries include architectural firms, museum foundations and agencies, and construction companies.[261]

Although they do not explicitly recognize their human rights responsibilities, many of the cultural and educational institutions involved with the Saadiyat Island development have ethics or mission statements that refer to goals or reflect awareness, to one degree or another, of social responsibilities more generally.[262]

Compliance with human-rights principles would, at minimum, require companies to take measures to avoid perpetuating and benefiting from conditions of indentured servitude and other serious rights violations, including those occurring in the workplace.