Fagan, Andrew --- "Buying Right: Consuming Ethically and Human Rights" [2006] ELECD 70; in Dine, Janet; Fagan, Andrew (eds), "Human Rights and Capitalism" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Human Rights and Capitalism

Editor(s): Dine, Janet; Fagan, Andrew

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845422684

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Buying Right: Consuming Ethically and Human Rights

Author(s): Fagan, Andrew

Number of pages: 28

Extract:

5. Buying right: Consuming ethically and
human rights
Andrew Fagan

INTRODUCTION
Can shopping positively contribute to the promotion and protection of human
rights? The discourse of human rights has long been dominated by a concern
for the dichotomous relationship between states and individuals. The relative
simplicity of this picture has been complicated in recent years in a variety of
ways. For example, the emergence and influence of international and national
non-governmental movements which, in effect, occupy an intermediate posi-
tion between states and individuals have, through their work, altered the
nature of the relationship between states and individuals. One consequence of
the emergence of international non-governmental organisations has been the
creation of relationships between collections of individuals which both cross
national and even continental boundaries and, in so doing, bypass national
governments. The bulk of the efforts of these organisations has consisted of
such things as raising awareness of human rights abuses, mobilising cam-
paigns against those responsible for these abuses, exerting pressure on
governmental and inter-governmental institutions to take direct action against
the abusers, and raising funds to maintain these campaigns. Until relatively
recently few within this field considered the possibility of promoting and
protecting social and economic rights by means of going shopping. However,
the emergence of what I shall henceforth refer to as the phenomenon of
`ethical shopping' offers precisely this promise. Through shopping ethically,
we consumers residing in the affluent countries of the world are presented
with the opportunity of enhancing human rights ...