My research seeks to engage with human rights as political tools within tobacco control and not simply legal resources. I aim to problematise the use of corporate social responsibility and environmental social governance by transnational tobacco companies and move beyond protection towards transformation of disabling environments. Using the case study of tobacco cultivation in the state of Nayarit, Mexico, I will unpick the complex web of interactions, processes and actors, from the local to the global through the supply chains of the tobacco industry, exploring concepts, including (un)free labour, precarious work, and colonial capitalism.