Human Rights Day: IOSH calls for safe, healthy work

Human rights are the foundation of dignity, equality and freedom – and they belong to everyone of us. This year’s Human Rights Day theme, ‘our everyday essentials’, reminds us that these rights are not abstract principles but essential to daily life. From the most fundamental to all of us, the right to life, extending to the rights to food, education, health and work, they underpin the way we live and work.

The International Labour Standards – set by the International Labour Organization (ILO) – establish basic principles and rights at work. They include the right to work, the right to social security, the right to safe and healthy working conditions, the right to fair wages, and so on.

In 2022, the ILO added a safe and healthy working environment to their fundamental principles and rights at work, something IOSH had been calling for. Since this time, governments and businesses have been urged to act.

Yet, millions of workers worldwide continue to face unsafe working conditions, unsafe work practices, exploitation and discrimination. This must change.

Why this matters

In 2025, the world of work is undergoing rapid transformation. Changes to how and where we work, worker demographics, climate-related risks and technological advances present new challenges. Rising inequalities and global conflicts make the protection of rights even more urgent. Human rights must remain central to corporate sustainability and social responsibility – not as a compliance exercise, but as a lived reality for every worker.

IOSH’s role

Through our Activate 2028 strategy, IOSH is driving progress by:

advocating for stronger governance and enforcement of human rights and labour rights, which includes a safe and healthy working environment.
identifying and advocating for principles of good occupational safety and health (OSH).
highlighting occupational safety and health challenges across global supply chains. Advocating for the abolition of modern slavery and promoting corporate due diligence across supply chains, and for social protections for all
championing protections for vulnerable groups of workers, including women, migrant workers, people with disabilities and those in non-standard employment. This includes those in sectors where the harm occurs the most
advocating for embedding occupational safety and health (OSH) into ESG frameworks, ensuring businesses recognise OSH as integral to decent work and to sustainability.

Our engagement and NGO activity at global forums, including the UN Economic and Social Council, World Summit for Social Development and the International Labour Conference, reinforces our message: a safe and health working environment, decent work and human rights are inseparable.

What needs to happen

Governments

Implement international conventions and national action plans on business and human rights, and ratify Conventions C155 and C187.
Businesses

Ensure robust health and safety management and integrate OSH into human rights due diligence, prioritising mental health, fair treatment and safe and healthy working environments.
Health and safety professionals

Vital role in creating workplaces with positive health and safety cultures. In addition, they help to ensure cultures that learn, are inclusive and equitable, and support resilient workplaces.

A call to action

Human Rights Day is a time to reflect – and to act. Human rights belong to all of us, and collectively we also need to play our part. Every organisation can make a difference by ensuring that work is not only productive but also safe, healthy and decent work, and supportive of human dignity. Together, we can turn principles into practice and make human rights an everyday reality.