A/HRC/34/57 Countries concerned Area of reform Weakening of collective Suspension or reduction of extension procedures bargaining Limitation of the “after effect” of expired collective agreements EL Interventions in collective bargaining Suspension of existing agreements EL, PT Limitation of the duration of agreements EL Weakening of trade unions Facilitating the conditions for non-union employee representatives to conclude collective agreements EL, ES, PT 19. Overall, the reforms have involved significant changes — sometimes even a transformation — in domestic labour law. As a result, the level of protection of labour law has been substantially reduced, while the possibility of trade unions protecting workers by negotiating collective agreements has been weakened. This raises the question of the effects of these reforms on the human rights of workers, which will be addressed in the following section. III. Impact of austerity-related labour law reforms on human rights 20. International human rights instruments contain several standards that may be encroached upon through austerity-related labour law reforms. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, notably, embodies the rights to freedom from forced labour and freedom of association, while the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights protects the rights to work and just working conditions and contains more detailed protections of workers’ freedom of association, including the right to strike. 15 Those rights are also protected by the fundamental conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the 1998 ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.16 Regional human rights instruments, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the American Convention on Human Rights, the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights “Protocol of San Salvador”, the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Social Charter also contain relevant provisions. 21. These standards have informed the approach of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in defining the scope of States’ obligations, for example regarding the 16 8 EL, ES, PT Limitation of arbitration Country abbreviations: EL = Greece, ES = Spain, IE = Ireland, IT = Italy, PT = Portugal. 15 EL, PT The Convention on the Rights of the Child (arts. 32 and 34), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (art. 11), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (art. 5) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (art. 27) also contain work-related State obligations. Furthermore, ILO has adopted close to 190 conventions and over 200 recommendations on labour issues.