The interdependence of human rights: a case study with recommendations for law reform to promote decent work in the informal economy and street vending sector in Nigeria

Broadly, decent work is promoted as a means to escape poverty. Indeed, particularly in developing countries, work is valuable as a means to gain income to meet the needs for food, shelter, health care, clothing and education. However, not all work contributes positively to human development. One example of such work is informal employment. As the informal economy has continued to expand, growing concern about the nature and quality of work has, over the past two decades, given rise to various attempts to measure and promote decent work. Decent work means work that respects the human rights of the worker. This is necessary as a strategy to eliminate poverty as well as being a key component of human dignity. A significant development of international norms for ‘decent work’ is the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) decent work agenda (DWA), launched in 1999, comprised of four pillars (indexes) that determine the quality of work, namely: fundamental rights at work, social protection, social dialogue and employment creation. However, characteristic of activities in the informal economy, of which street vending is an example, is the lack of decent work. To achieve decent work, the objective is to transition work in the informal economy toward decent work in the formal economy. The presence of a legal framework that facilitates such a transition is critical for achieving this objective and the primary aim of this thesis is to identify the characteristics of the Nigerian legal framework that impede a transition from the informal economy, with a particular focus on the legal framework for street vending activities. Based on these findings, the thesis makes recommendations for law reform, in order to operationalise decent work within the prescripts of the ILO’s Recommendation concerning the transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy (Recommendation 204). The thesis explores the development, characteristics and nature of the informal economy both at a global level and within the specific context of Nigeria; and street trading is used as a lens to examine the dynamics and conditions of work in the informal economy. The study reveals that street vendors, like many other informal workers, lack adequate property rights in public spaces and are not protected by the labour rights which make up the pillars of decent work, in essence highlighting two core legal shortcomings that impede decent work; that is, the unenforceability of socio-economic rights and the denial of property rights in urban public places. This is borne out by the analysis of the current regulatory framework in Lagos, Nigeria, which is structured to undermine street trading as a legitimate form of work. The thesis draws attention to the interdependence of human rights, specifically in the context of property rights and the socioeconomic rights that underpin the concept of decent work and proposes law reform to address shortcomings in the law in order to promote decent work and the formalization of the rights of street vendors in Nigeria. Specifically, the thesis recommends selected pathways for supporting the pillars of decent work within the context of the ILO’s Recommendation 204. The thesis recognises that the implementation of these pathways has policy implications that require further reflection in the process of designing an appropriate legal framework to regulate the Nigerian informal economy