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.
United Nations agencies estimate that 12 months after an emergency, approximately 15 to 20 percent of adults will experience some type of moderate or mild mental health disorder. However, data published today reveals that 88.7 percent of Rohingya re...Read More
The NetClean Report 2016 provides an overview of global trends in child sexual abuse crime, especially on the channels that are used for the distribution of child sexual abuse material. The report is a unique insight into the experiences and accumula...Read More
This project sought to set out the determinants of anti-trafficking efforts, understood as factors shaping governments’ anti-trafficking efforts and influencing compliance with – and implementation of – international standards. It sought to do...Read More
This study examines the inner workings of credit and debt in the sex industry in Ho Chi Minh City, the megalopolis of Southern Vietnam. It argues that credit is widely available to financially excluded sex workers, but that this availability comes w...Read More
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