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 article examines Canada’s federal Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) from the perspective of international human-rights and labour norms pertaining to the protection of migrant workers. Showing that the current legal framework of the LCP restric...Read More
This paper describes various fraudulent visas used by criminals operating in the U.S. sex market. Studies show that many foreign women exploited through commercial sex rely on visa brokers to enter the U.S. However, scholars have not investigated va...Read More
Government plans for two temporary migration programmes to bring workers to the UK after Brexit present significant risks of labour abuse and exploitation, including human trafficking. This briefing describes the two proposed programmes, explains th...Read More
This study contributes knowledge about anti-trafficking faith-based and non-faith-based NGOs—how they compare in their goals and mission, why they do what they do, the care philosophies and services that they have, and how they can work together. ...Read More
2025 © Copyright, RESPECT International. All Rights Reserved. Website Disclaimer | Privacy Policy
