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.
This research looks at boys engaging in their own sexual exploitation by selling sex in Thailand. The report reveals a big knowledge gap amongst frontline welfare service providers, problematic beliefs and attitudes about male and gender diverse chi...Read More
The data in this report represents signals and cases from January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2018 and is accurate as of July 25, 2019. Cases of trafficking may be ongoing or new information may revealed to the National Hotline over time. Consequen...Read More
Backpage.com is a classified advertising website which is frequently used by potential traffickers to post advertisements for commercial sex with potential victims of trafficking. The National Human Trafficking Hotline has received a number of repor...Read More
The 2016 ITUC Global Rights Index shows workers’ rights were weakened in almost all regions of the world, including through severe crackdowns on the right to free speech and assembly. Part I of this publication provides a more detailed analysi...Read More
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