A/HRC/42/41 Principle 8 – Every worker has the right to know, including to know their rights. Commentary 53. The right to information is the foundation for the realization of all workers’ rights regarding toxic exposures. Workers have the right to know, inter alia, the implications of exposure, the action being taken to prevent exposure and their rights in relation to such exposure. Every worker has the right to know current information about their actual and potential exposures to toxic and otherwise hazardous substances. 54. Public frameworks for collecting, measuring, monitoring, reporting and verifying information on hazards and exposure levels are necessary for evaluating and analysing health implications and accountability. Maintaining disaggregated, accurate and complete information is necessary to understand specific events and for accurate knowledge of the impact of particular actions on various workers as well as on other exposed groups including children, women of reproductive age, migrant workers and their families, older persons and persons with disabilities.48 55. ILO conventions recognize several aspects of the worker’s (and their representative’s) right to know, as well as of the duties of States and the responsibilities of employers and businesses, including chemical suppliers. 49 For example, concerned workers and their representatives have the right to “information on the identity of chemicals used at work, the hazardous properties of such chemicals, precautionary measures, education and training”.50 56. Occupational health and safety information must be available and accessible to workers in a form that effectively serves their needs, bearing in mind their skills, language proficiency and circumstances, and communicated through training and other means. 51 57. States are duty-bound to generate, collect, assess and update information on hazards and risks encountered by workers, as well as epidemiological and other evidence of occupational diseases and disabilities. 52 States, employers and business enterprises must efficiently communicate health and safety information, including the results of medical examinations, to workers, trade unions and other workers’ representatives. 58. Business enterprises are responsible for identifying and assessing the actual and potential exposure by workers to toxic substances in their supply chains and resulting from their own activities. 53 This includes information on the types of toxic substances in occupational settings, the intrinsic hazards of such substances and exposure-related data. Chemical suppliers have heightened responsibilities to identify and assess and to communicate information for the protection of workers to workers, employers, other business enterprises and States.54 59. As well as the right to information about occupational health risks, workers also have the right to be informed of all their rights and the relevant duties and responsibilities of States and business enterprises regarding these rights, and how they can exercise and defend their rights when they are abused or violated. Principle 9 – Health and safety information about toxic substances must never be confidential. 60. A persistent challenge to realizing the right to information in the context of toxic chemicals is claims of confidentiality or secrecy. Illegitimate claims of confidential 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 A/33/41, para. 26. ILO Chemicals Convention, art. 18.; Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention, 1993 (No. 174), art. 20; Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176), art. 13 (1) (c); and Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention, 2001 (No. 184), art. 8 (1) (a). ILO Chemicals Convention, art. 18 (3) (a). A/HRC/30/40. Ibid. Ibid. ILO Chemicals Convention, art. 18. 13