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.
The National Survivor Survey is the largest and most significant effort to date to learn directly from survivors of sex and labor trafficking. This report uses the findings from this study to paint a detailed picture of the arc of trafficking – fr...Read More
This document was created as an accompanying document to our “NGO Involvement in Raid/Rescue Operations” Webinar, which was held in May 2017. The webinar examined the risks and benefits, how to conduct better operations, as well as provided opti...Read More
This review has drawn upon findings from evaluations and research that has been carried out by academics and by government departments. It has identified that in some cases, there is an absence of an independent, published evaluation. To understand ...Read More
For over a decade, the Oakland Institute has raised alarm about the conditions and threats that both the Gibe III Dam and the Kuraz Sugar Development Project pose for Indigenous communities in the region. Now, several years on, new research conducte...Read More
2025 © Copyright, RESPECT International. All Rights Reserved. Website Disclaimer | Privacy Policy
