All of ICAR’s initiatives, research, and projects are intended to help realize a future in which we operate under a rights-based economy. Thus, its projects to achieve worker rights, tackle corporate-driven corruption, create mechanisms for corporate accountability, and reform supply chains, among others, all contribute to this holistic vision. To this end, ICAR has been effective in creating guidelines aligned with its ideals for various industries to meet and in inserting language into global declarations that uphold the ideal of better supply chains. (For example, it has created an Apparel and Footwear Supply Chain Transparency Pledge in which a multitude of companies have participated, and helped change global norms through advocating for rights-based language that was added to the G20 2017 Leaders’ Declaration.)

Although this might not be the express intention, ICAR researches – and publishes its research – in a way that is wonderfully, and critically, accessible to the public. In its efforts to understand the future of work, to push for supply chains that respect and protect human and environmental rights, to build a better trade regime, and to ensure accountability for corporate wrongdoers, ICAR engages with stakeholders and releases its findings free of charge on its website. This gives regular people the ability to understand ICAR’s work and track its progress on various initiatives. Ultimately, this allows ICAR to “walk the talk” of transparency, demonstrating for others its commitments to knowledge and clarity, not just for those who it investigates, but also for itself. And, although building public interest and pressure in these areas is extremely challenging, ICAR’s public research and stances on different issues very clearly show its potential partners that it will work thoroughly and intensely on the issues to which it commits.

More specifically, ICAR has worked to confront the quickly evolving nature of labor and labor rights. To do so, it has expanded its efforts to realize workers rights, and the types of threats to labor rights that it examines. This includes investigating the ways in which automation and mechanization impacts human rights and recommendations for governments and industry to respond. Research on this topic culminated the release of the Robots and Rights report, which was launched at RightsCon in May 2018. This kind of information and research is vital for the public to understand the new challenges to human rights and to job attainment as automation increases. It can hopefully inform lawmakers and regulators as they address the impacts of these changes on the lives of workers.
ICAR’s many initiatives are all aimed at adopting realistic tactics to achieve one lofty goal, while maintaining a collaborative spirit. ICAR’s efforts to work thoroughly, and to work with others, have resulted in powerful collective calls for the global community to do better and do right. The policies ICAR and its allies propose are consistently innovative and practical, shaping a better framework of global norms. Although ICAR’s work is slow, as it works toward long-term solutions, and it (along with civil society at large) is at odds with the current U.S. government, it works diligently and responsibly, with a strong track record of success.