A/HRC/42/41 from enjoying a life with dignity, including threats emanating from private persons and entities. Pursuant to their duty to protect the right to life, States are also required to take special measures of protection towards persons in vulnerable situations whose lives have been placed at particular risk because of specific threats, such as workers. 22 Furthermore, States are obliged to adopt preventive measures to protect the right to health, including provisions for healthy working conditions. 23 States also have a duty to improve all aspects of industrial hygiene under the right to health. 24 This includes taking preventive measures in respect of occupational accidents and diseases and the prevention and reduction of the population’s exposure to harmful substances such as radiation and harmful chemicals that directly or indirectly impact upon human health. 25 30. States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have a duty to protect the right to safe and healthy working conditions. Work, as specified in article 6 of the Covenant, must be decent work. Decent work requires States to respect and protect the right of workers to physical integrity, which is infringed by toxic exposures.26 31. Prevention of exposure requires deliberate action by States. States must do everything in their power to protect all workers in their territory and/or jurisdiction from occupational exposures to toxic substances.27 States must take appropriate steps to prevent, investigate, punish and provide redress for cases of occupational exposures to toxic and otherwise hazardous substances through effective policies, legislation, regulation and enforcement, as well as adjudication.28 32. States must ensure that their laws and policies on occupational health are healthprotective and rights-based. Laws and policies that permit exposure are not necessarily health-protective of workers.29 States must not allow workers to be subjected to greater risk of adverse health impacts from exposure relative to the general population unless there is a strong public interest justification beyond the need for employment. 30 States should take action to protect workers in the face of scientific uncertainty (see also principle 6). To ensure that they are not turning a blind eye to the exploitation of workers, States must monitor working conditions, including routine monitoring of exposures (see also principle 8), and enforce laws for the protection of workers’ rights. 33. States have heightened duties regarding the protection of workers at elevated social or physiological risks, including informal workers. States should apply higher protection standards for groups of workers that are especially vulnerable to exploitation by exposure. Multiple factors (see principle 1) further exacerbate the general vulnerability of workers regarding exposure to toxics. Prevention and responses to situations of exposure must take into account social status, education level, age, gender, national origin, ethnicity, disability and other compounding vulnerabilities of workers to be effective. Special measures must be taken for the protection of workers in high-risk sectors such as mining, agriculture, construction, energy, the military, manufacturing and waste disposal, among others, from exposure to toxic substances. National policies and programmes to promote safe and healthy working conditions should aim not only at the formal sector but also at the informal 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 8 Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 36 (2018) on the right to life. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 14 (2000) on the right to the highest attainable standard of health. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 12. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 14. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 18, para. 7. Not limited to directly employed workers. See para. 23 Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, principles 1, 4 and 15. See para. 24. See also Smith and Raphael, “Health and safety policies for electronics workers”; and Occupational Health Hazard Risk Assessment Project for California. For example, the State of California has moved away from problematic “permissible exposure limits” toward health-protective standards, as recommended in Occupational Health Hazard Risk Assessment Project for California. See also International Commission on Radiological Protection, The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. Annals of the ICPR: ICRP publication 103, vol. 37, Nos. 2–4 (2007).