Important new policy frameworks call on governments to ensure respect for human rights by businesses and to secure a transition to sustainable consumption. Public procurement accounts for a significant share of the global economy, and nearly 30% of government expenditure across OECD countries. But what are the obligations of the state to protect human rights when it acts as a buyer? And how can procurement be used to drive respect for human rights amongst government suppliers? This engaging book reflects on these important questions, from the dual disciplinary perspectives of public procurement and human rights.

Through legal analysis and practice-focused case studies, the expert contributors interrogate the role and potential of public procurement as a driver for responsible business conduct. Highlighting the character of public procurement as an interface for multiple normative regimes and competing policies, the book advances a compelling case for a shift to a new paradigm of sustainable procurement that embraces human rights as crucial to realising international policies such as those embodied in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Topical and thought-provoking, Public Procurement and Human Rights will be an essential read for academics and students of human rights law, public procurement law, and business and human rights, as well as practitioners in public procurement and sustainability, and government officials.

Contributors include: B.S. Claeson, E. Conlon, C. Emberson, P. Goethberg, O. Martin-Ortega, A. Marx, C. Methven O'Brien, C. Nicholas, O. Outhwaite, G. Quinot, D. Russo, A. Sanchez-Graells, J. Sinclair, R. Stumberg, A. Trautrims, N. Vander Meulen, S. Williams-Elegbe

About the Author
Edited by Olga Martin-Ortega, Professor of International Law and Director of the Business, Human Rights and the Environment Research Group (BHRE), School of Law, University of Greenwich, UK and Claire Methven O'Brien, Reader in Law, School of Law, University of Dundee, UK

Reviews
'Olga Martin-Ortega and Claire Methven O'Brien have edited an important book that centres the human rights questions arising from public procurement processes. The 14 chapters in Martin-Ortega and O'Brien's edited book fill an important gap by undertaking an incisive and insightful analysis of the human rights implications of public procurement processes from a cross-disciplinary perspective.' -- Olabisi D Akinkugbe, Business and Human Rights Journal
'Olga Martin-Ortega and Claire Methven O'Brien have collected the most sophisticated legal analyses of the different issues faced when considering human rights in buying procedures as they arise in different legal environments. They have included deeply thought through case studies on actual practices already at work in most relevant sectors such as electronics and apparel. This book will enlighten academics and policy-makers and help practitioners. Overall, it is conveying a very important message: human rights must be taken seriously in public procurement procedures!' -- Roberto Caranta, University of Turin, Italy



Book Information
ISBN 9781788116305
Author Olga Martin-Ortega
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd
Publisher Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd