Trevino Lozano, Laura and Martin-Ortega, Olga ORCID: 0000-0002-1779-0120 (2020) Public procurement during Covid-19 in Latin America: challenges, responses and next steps forward. International Learning Lab on Procurement and Human Rights, International Learning Lab on Procurement and Human Rights Blog.

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Abstract

On the 8th September 2020, during the United Nations Fifth Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights for Latin America and the Caribbean a topic which is receiving increased interest in the region and is key to move forward the business and human rights agenda was addressed: human rights and public procurement. Public procurement is the process through which the public sector buys goods, services and works to accomplish its functions or needs. The relevance of public procurement to human rights can be seen in two ways. Firstly, public procurement contributes to the realisation to the human rights of end users of purchased goods and services. During the pandemic, the purchase of goods like masks, medicines, ventilators and medical services served to guarantee patients’ right to health and life. Ultimately, patients were the end users of these goods. Secondly, public procurement is a powerful tool that can be leveraged by States to comply with their international human rights obligations. Obligations include guaranteeing not only the end user’s human rights, but also the rights of people that are involved in the production and delivery process, like workers in supply chains. The United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights establish that States can fulfil human rights obligations by requiring that their suppliers adopt responsible business conduct measures through contractual obligations. Although some progress has been seen in embedding human rights within public procurement, this second dimension has been given less attention within public procurement practices of States in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Item Type:	Other
Uncontrolled Keywords:	public procurement, COVID, Latin America, human rights
Subjects:	J Political Science > JX International law
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > Business, Human Rights and the Environment Research Group (BHRE)
Last Modified:	24 Aug 2021 10:03
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/31094

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