Structural Dilemmas in Labor Rights Protection and the Colonial Paradox of Global Governance

This article studies the systematic breakdown of labour rights protection in developing countries under globalization and unveils the mechanisms behind this breakdown by examining three structural dilemmas. It finds that national regulatory capacity is locked into a vicious circle of scarce resources and ineffective enforcement; legal systems institutionalise exploitation via biased rules; and capital in Global Value Chains (GVCs) undermines host-state sovereignty through pricing power, regulatory races to the bottom, and misallocation of resources. These three interlocking mechanisms cause the breakdown of labour rights. In reaction, the Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) mechanism seeks to overcome these dilemmas through parallel governance, transnational litigation, and piercing corporate liability. Yet it succumbs to a neocolonial paradox. Northern-dominated standard-setting persists alongside compensation cycles rooted in colonial history and geographically selective remedies. These practices collectively perpetuate global power asymmetries. The conclusion contends that although HRDD improves governance effectiveness to some extent, it does not break free from colonial logic. Global labour rights protection must transcend the current capital-centred paradigm.