The corona pandemic has led to a massive disruption of global supply chains and has thus existentially affected the export economies of many producing countries. This is particularly dramatic for workers at the beginning of the value chain. The violations of internationally recognized social and economic rights in global supply chains are more massive today than before the crisis and reveal a far-reaching potential for new conflicts. The article illustrates this situation in the case of Brazil and India and, on this basis, raises the issue of global supply chains as a topic for peace and conflict research. Supply chains are spaces of political conflict about material and ideological conditions of production, which are shaped by a variety of institutional contexts and actors. One of the most controversial issues is the lack of labour and human rights protection. The dominant way to address this lack is through institutions and practices of transnational private governance—standards, certification, monitoring and audits. In the pandemic, these already patchy approaches reveal that, especially in times of crisis, they are unsuitable for securing basic labour and human rights and for pacifying existing conflicts. The article concludes with an emphasis of the linkages between global supply chains and local conflicts and argues for an extended research agenda on “supply chains and conflict”.
Die Pandemie offenbart die Defizite des transnationalen Menschenrechtsschutzes: Ein Plädoyer für eine Konfliktperspektive auf globale Lieferketten