A/HRC/39/48 global economy. The Special Rapporteur concludes with proposed principles to respect and protect the rights of workers implicated by toxic occupational exposures and to ensure effective remedies for violations or abuses. 11. For the purpose of the report, the term “workers” includes not only directly employed workers but also informal workers, as well as contract workers, subcontractors, agency workers and all other persons performing work or work-related activities. 12. For over 20 years, United Nations human rights bodies have mandated a special rapporteur to monitor and report on the human rights implications of exposure to hazardous substances and toxic wastes in various industries worldwide, including in relation to workers. 13. The present report is part of an ongoing effort by the current mandate holder to improve the integration of human rights into occupational safety and health discussions at the national and international levels. The Special Rapporteur believes that the importance of the issue has been largely forgotten and deprioritized in relevant international forums, resulting in a lack of global progress in confronting the growing concern. II. Human rights of workers and exposure to toxic substances 14. Workers’ rights are human rights, and human rights are workers’ rights. These rights are interrelated, indivisible and universal. They include civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. No one can be deprived of these human rights because of the work they perform. 15. Workers are especially vulnerable to the violation and abuse of their human rights, not the least of which is from being subjected to exposure to toxic substances in the course of their work. The harms of chronic exposures are often invisible, and it may be years or even decades until adverse health impacts become manifest in workers or their children. Prevention of exposure to toxic substances is essential to protect human rights, including the rights of workers. A. Right to safe and healthy working conditions 16. The right to just and favourable working conditions, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (art. 23) and again in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art. 7), includes the right to safe and healthy working conditions. By separately stipulating the right of workers to safe and healthy working conditions, the Covenant recognizes and emphasizes the vulnerability of workers to violations and abuses of their rights. This vulnerability heightens the obligations of States and other parties to prevent institutionalized exploitation of workers due to hazardous work. 17. The right to safe and healthy work is a right in itself; however, it also encompasses many other interrelated and interdependent human rights of workers, including the rights described below. 18. Everyone, including workers in both formal and informal settings, has the inherent right to life20 and the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.21 States have a clear obligation to adopt preventive measures to protect both the 20 21 substances and wastes as “toxics”, but the term as used in the report includes non-toxic but hazardous substances and wastes as well. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, art. 6. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, art. 12. 5