title: Building a human rights framework for workers' compensation in the United States: opening the debate on first principles.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This article introduces the idea of human rights to the topic of workers' compensation in the United States. It discusses what constitutes a human rights approach and explains how this approach conflicts with those policy ideas that have provided the foundation historically for workers' compensation in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using legal and historical research, key international labor and human rights standards on employment injury benefits and influential writings in the development of the U.S. workers' compensation system are cited.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Workers' injury and illness compensation in the United States does not conform to basic international human rights norms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A comprehensive review of the U.S. workers' compensation system under international human rights standards is needed. Examples of policy changes are highlighted that would begin the process of moving workers' compensation into conformity with human rights standards.
authors.affiliation: School of Industrial Relations, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada. jeffrey.hilgert@umontreal.ca
authors.forename: Jeffrey A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hilgert
mesh_terms: D006806:Human Rights / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D009784:Occupational Diseases; D060051:Occupational Injuries; D016134:Organizational Policy; D028662:Principle-Based Ethics; D014481:United States; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence