The agricultural industry is a cornerstone of the economy in Latin America and the Caribbean, but it faces structural challenges when it comes to human rights and environmental sustainability. Human rights due diligence is key to preventing and mitigating negative impacts in these areas, by ensuring that companies not only meet international standards, but that they also create more just and sustainable production models.
This was the point that Verónica Rodríguez of Fundación Avina, who serves as coordinator of PERIPLO Mexico, drove home during the session titled “Soluciones colaborativas en los agronegocios: poniendo en práctica la debida diligencia en las cadenas de suministro” (“Collaborative Agribusiness Solutions: Putting Due Diligence into Practice in Supply Chains”) as part of the IX Foro Regional sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos en América Latina y el Caribe, a regional forum on business and human rights held April 10-11 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The event was co-organized by Fundación Avina, Centro de Información sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos (CIEDH), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Rodríguez emphasized that the increase in food production and trade has exacerbated the problems of labor exploitation and the lack of effective mechanisms to uphold the rights of agricultural workers.
Multiple PERIPLO member organizations, including CIEDH, participated in the session, including Stronger Together Mexico, Centro de los Derechos del Migrante, and CIERTO Global. Nearly 80 people were in attendance to learn how participatory methodologies, systematized experiences, tools, mechanisms, and business models that integrate human rights due diligence can be incorporated into the agricultural industry. PERIPLO is rooted in the belief that it is impossible to make agricultural supply chains truly sustainable without putting workers at the center and without meaningful collaboration between the public, private, and civil society sectors.
A wide array of stakeholders involved in agriculture participated in the discussion, including representatives from companies and nonprofit organizations as well as migrant agricultural workers. Abelina Ramírez, a union leader, spoke about the challenges that women agricultural day laborers face in Mexico, including reprehensible treatment, low wages, and lack of access to justice. Ramírez explained that labor organizing is a tool that enables workers to learn about and develop mechanisms to demand respect for their rights and guarantee that they are upheld, in addition to confronting sexism and the lack of opportunities for women. Finally, she highlighted the creation of a national union of agricultural workers, Sindicato Independiente Nacional Democrático de Jornaleros Agrícolas, and the women’s rights organization Mujeres Unidas en Defensa de las Jornaleras e Indígenas as important partners in advancing the human rights agenda.
Speaking from the perspective of the private sector in Mexico, Esdras Ambriz, manager of agricultural workforce development for Driscoll’s, referred to the implementation of human rights due diligence as a “process that enables companies to identify, prevent, mitigate, and respond to negative human rights consequences directly related to operations, products, and services provided by their commercial partners.” Ambriz pointed out that the industry faces structural challenges to implementing due diligence, including high rates of informal employment, subcontracting, weak institutions, and fragmented value chains. He also noted, however, a few opportunities and steps in the right direction, including stricter regulations, consumer awareness, concern about corporate reputation, and certifications.
Susan Luna, director of the nonprofit organization Surmaule, shared the experience of the PERIPLO Project in Chile, where Venezuelan, Haitian, and Bolivian migrants working in the agricultural sector face a lack of contracts, long hours, and substandard housing, issues that are also common in Mexico and other countries in the region. Luna explained that PERIPLO Chile follows three lines of action: collective efforts like offering training to women migrants; community empowerment, support, and advising; and, lastly, building relationships with the government and civil society organizations in multi-stakeholder spaces.
Luana Mischiatti of the global nonprofit Proforest spoke about implementing human rights due diligence in the sugar industry in Argentina and Brazil, with the goal of training farmers to carry out their own due diligence processes and understand the responsibilities of different stakeholders along the supply chain.
PERIPLO Mexico is a platform that brings together the following national and international civil society organizations: Centro de Acompañamiento a Migrantes (CAMINOS), Centro de los Derechos del Migrante Inc. (CDM), Centro de Derechos Humanos de la Montaña Tlachinollan, Centro de Estudios en Cooperación Internacional y Gestión Pública (CECIG), Centro de Información sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos (CIEDH), Cierto Global, Nosotr@s por la Democracia, Oxfam Mexico, Stronger Together, and Verité. The PERIPLO Project is made possible thanks to support from the Walmart Foundation.
