LIFE BEFORE PROFIT
SEATINI Uganda is undertaking a campaign dubbed; ‘‘LIFE BEFORE PROFIT’’ to advance the primacy of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in investment related Agreements, Policies and Processes.
Investments and corporations have historically been key in the pursuit of profit maximization, often at the expense of human rights. The perceived benefits of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) have often come at a cost of gross human rights abuse.
In order for investments to result in equitable socio-economic transformation, there is a need for appropriate policy frameworks that balance the rights and obligations of the state, investors, citizens and the environment.
Findings from a recent report published by SEATINI Uganda reveal that labourers in commercial investment schemes are adversely affected by human rights violations ranging from land grabbing, backbreaking workload, casualization of labour during the course of their employment, exposure to dangerous chemicals due to lack of appropriate gears among others.
These violations occur in some of the country’s most productive and profitable value chains in which high-value products on massive demand are produced. Such products include; sugar, palm oil, flowers, cigarettes and cigars, tea, textiles, steel bars, among others. Investments have therefore come to be synonymous with human rights violations and massive land grabs.
Read more;
https://seatiniuganda.org/download-category/policy-briefs/page/2/