"Editors preface" [2019] ELECD 1131; in Martin-Ortega, Olga; Methven O'Brien, Claire (eds), "Public Procurement and Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) xv

Book Title: Public Procurement and Human Rights

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

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section Title: Editors preface

Number of pages: 4

Extract:

Editors' preface
Despite its scale and significance within the global economy, and increasing
prominence in the context of new norms such as the United Nations Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), as well as the United
Nations 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, public procure-
ment until recently remained a neglected topic within the broader emerging
field of business and human rights.
With the aim of addressing this gap in scholarship, practice and advocacy,
from 2013 onwards each of us sought to initiate dialogue and collaboration
with members of the public procurement profession through networks includ-
ing the International Federation of Purchasing and Supply Chain Management,
International Purchasing and Supply Education and Research Association,
London Universities Purchasing Consortium, the UK Local Government
Association, the Higher Education Procurement Association, the European
Ethical Working Group on Public Procurement and the 10 Year Framework
of Programmes on Sustainable Public Procurement led by the United Nations
Environment Programme.
Subsequently, we met and embarked on collaborative work through the
platform of the International Learning Lab on Public Procurement and Human
Rights, established by the Danish Institute for Human Rights, the Harrison
Institute for Public Law at Georgetown University and the International
Corporate Accountability Roundtable.1 As a result we identified a range of
common interests and concerns. One was a lack of analysis addressing the
legal duties of public buyers in the procurement context under human rights
instruments. We realised that basic analytical questions had not yet been
posed, much less definitively answered. ...