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"Foreword" [2019] ELECD 1130; in Martin-Ortega, Olga; Methven O'Brien, Claire (eds), "Public Procurement and Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) xii

Book Title: Public Procurement and Human Rights

Editor(s): Martin-Ortega, Olga; Methven O’Brien, Claire

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 3

Extract:

Foreword
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) seek to `realize the human rights of all', to `leave no one behind'
and to `reach those furthest behind first'. The shared principles and commit-
ments of the 2030 Agenda are grounded in the United Nations Charter, the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international human rights treaties,
including the Declaration on the Right to Development.
Public procurement in OECD countries accounted for 13.3 per cent of GDP
in 2017, nearly 30 per cent of total general government expenditure, and the
picture is similar in middle-income and developing countries. The European
Union estimates that including utilities procurement brings the percentage total
in the 28 EU countries from 16 per cent to 19 per cent of GDP, over 2 trillion
per annum.
It is therefore difficult to conceive of a tool available to all states with higher
potential economic leverage to implement their human rights commitments.
Public procurement, besides facilitating essential public services, provides
a means for public investment in infrastructure, and offers the opportunity to
target those investments to maximise developmental impact. It also allows
governments to improve the living standards of all, promote the highest attain-
able standard of physical and mental health; and support education, cultural
activity and scientific benefits. In addition, by requiring high-quality and
innovative goods and services in procurement contracts, governments can, for
example, promote minimum wage and decent work commitments. Yet despite
the clear potential, public procurement policy-makers have ...