Human Rights in Tobacco Cultivation in Nayarit, Mexico

Transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) are seeking to furnish a new image, transitioning away from their disastrous public health impact, to focus upon their environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials. However, counter to their claims, while the tobacco epidemic continues to take 8 million lives annually, tobacco leaf production has negative impacts on the people who grow it and the natural environment.

The project will problematise the current industry-dominated conceptions of ESG and their use as a tool for maintaining the dominant socioeconomic systems which prioritise the profits of transnational tobacco companies over the health of people and the natural environment. I will answer the following research questions:

- How are the human rights of tobacco farmers and workers in Nayarit, Mexico impacted in tobacco cultivation and harvest?

- What social, economic, political, and environmental factors impact the human rights of farmers and workers in tobacco cultivation and harvest?

- How do the experiences of those involved in tobacco cultivation and harvest in Nayarit align with the environmental, social and governance claims of the tobacco industry?

I will employ an interdisciplinary approach, targeting this endemic public health issue from a political economy perspective through a human rights framework. I will undertake fieldwork in the Mexican state of Nayarit, which will be used as a case study to explore and test the framework. The state of Nayarit in an understudied and representative case study, growing over 90% of tobacco in a country which plays an important role in global tobacco supply chains.

I will undertake difficult language training to learn a local learn indigenous Huichol language to facilitate data collection among tobacco day labourers.

The local context will be analysed alongside wider structural factors within the global supply chains of the tobacco industry incorporating concepts such as (un)free labour and colonial capitalism. This project will systematically conceptualise human rights in tobacco production and act as an impactful tool to hold states and companies accountable. While a political economy approach can engage with human rights as political tools and not simply legal resources, to move beyond protection towards transformation of disabling environments.

A timely project, it can build upon the decisions of the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) regarding human rights and protection of the environment and the health of persons. With little progress on Articles 17 and 18 relating to tobacco production in Mexico, the research is an opportunity to hold the government to account in its compliance with its obligations within the FCTC.

While the development of a robust human rights framework can be used in research and advocacy outside of Mexico.

There are a number of active research themes into which this research could contribute, including the use of human rights in tobacco control, the use of ESG by multinational companies to maintain unequal power structures, and alternatives to tobacco production. Collaboration with partner Salud Justa Mx will support the realisation of the project, including disseminating the findings through influential local and international networks.