Oxfam: Introduce legal requirements for companies to prevent human rights abuses

Tougher rules are needed to make it mandatory for companies to protect human rights and the climate.

Carlos, 58, from Brazil, has worked for almost 20 years spraying mangoes and grapes with toxic chemicals. He is one of many food production workers who have suffered serious injuries due to a lack of protection and safety in the workplace.

"Several of my colleagues have lost all their hair and my skin is starting to fall off."

Carlos, worker in Brazil

Carlos reflects himself in a small pocket mirror. Photo: Tatiana Cardeal

Three dishes for two crowns

The workers and farmers often earn very little from selling the food they produce. That was also the price of the menu Oxfam served at the Mål 8 restaurant in Stockholm in October. The aim of the restaurant was to highlight the suffering behind our food.

The campaign generated strong emotions and 3200 individuals in Sweden have signed the petition demanding that companies and politicians stop the suffering behind our food.

In a new report, Oxfam shows that the vast majority of the consumer price of food goes to the big food chains, which make huge profits and increase their power while the workers and farmers who produce the food are forced to work in slave-like conditions.

Unfortunately, poverty wages are just one example of how people's rights are systematically violated before successful companies make huge profits from selling their products in Sweden.

Several European countries have laws to prevent this type of exploitation, regulations that require companies to actively prevent them from violating human rights. But no such law exists in Sweden.

Oxfam is now pushing for companies to be held accountable when they exploit workers and commit human rights abuses. To increase the pressure on EU Member States to address this issue, Oxfam, together with a large number of other organizations and trade unions, has launched a petition calling for EU-level legislation to make it mandatory for companies to prevent human rights abuses and reduce their climate impact in their operations both within and outside the EU.

"It is clear that it is not enough to let companies decide for themselves, we want to see legal requirements."

Hanna Nelson, Policy Advisor at Oxfam Sweden

EU legislation like the one Oxfam is calling for can increase protection for workers, help boost consumer confidence, and ensure that products sold in the EU are free from human suffering and negative climate impact.