Under the regime of private company or multi-stakeholder voluntary codes of conduct and industry social auditing, workers have absorbed low wages and unsafe and abusive conditions; labour leaders and union members have become the targets of both government and factory harassment and violence; and trade union power has waned. Nowhere have these private systems of codes and audits so clearly failed to protect workers as in Bangladesh’s apparel industry. However, international labour groups and Bangladeshi unions have succeeded in mounting a challenge to voluntarism in the global economy, persuading more than 180 companies to make a binding and enforceable commitment to workers’ safety in an agreement with 12 unions.
The extent to which this Bangladesh Accord will be able to influence the entrenched global regime of voluntary codes and weak trade unions remains an open question. But if the Accord can make progress in Bangladesh, it can help to inspire similar efforts in other countries and in other industries.
Climate change is devastating the planet, leading to intensifying global inequality as well as disputes over land, water, and scarce resources. People are being driven to migrate within and across borders in search of resources and income, making th...Read More
Out of the shadows: Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation, a 60-country benchmarking index, examines how countries are responding to the threat of sexual violence against children. It explores the environment in whic...Read More
In research, policy and practice, internal trafficking has been long overshadowed by its international counterpart. Despite the introduction of specific legislation against internal sex trafficking, confusion remains in Britain around how this crim...Read More
The data in this report represents signals and cases from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017 and is accurate as of July 11, 2018. Cases of trafficking may be ongoing or new information may be revealed to the National Hotline over time. Conseq...Read More
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