Invitation: Webinar on human rights due dilligence in the global textile industry
We have the pleasure to invite you for a webinar about corporate responsibility for human rights issues in the upper tiers of the global textile supply chain on Wednesday 17 November 2021 3.00 - 4.30pm CET / 9.00 - 10.30am EST.
Photography: Catrien Ariens
We organize, together with Arisa, SOMO and Transparentem a webinar about the implementation of human rights due diligence norms in the extended global textile supply chain.
Experiences implementation norms & guidelines in buyer-supplier relations
For this webinar, we have invited a number of experts to elaborate on the interpretation of current international HRDD norms and principles with regard to manufacturers in the upper tiers of the global textile supply chain, such as spinning facilities. They will also share their experiences with the real-life implementation of these norms and guidelines in existing buyer-supplier relations.
Bring experts together
The objective of the webinar is to bring together a group of experts with various backgrounds and outlooks, and share and learn from each other’s perspectives. The overall aim is to contribute to respect for the human rights of workers and their communities that toil in spinning mills, ginning facilities, vertically integrated garment factories
Research
This webinar builds on earlier researches conducted by SOMO & Arisa and by Transparentem which highlighted the risks and existence of forced labour in the textile industry in Tamil Nadu (South India). These researches linked European and US textile and clothing brands and retailers to a number of spinning mills in Tamil Nadu.
Widespread and persistent violations
The picture that arose from the research is that human rights risks and actual violations are widespread and persistent in the further tiers of the global textile and garment supply chains. While companies at the buying end of the supply chain have demonstrated some success at extending remedy to workers beyond the first tier, there remain many opportunities for improvement in identifying, preventing, mitigating and/or remediating human rights issues in upstream supply chains.
Speakers:
- Mr. Surya Deva -Chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights
- Ms. Dorothy Lovell - Policy Analyst in the Responsible Business Conduct Team at the OECD, leading the OECD's work on Due Diligence for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector
- Company speaker (to be confirmed)
Practical information:
- Updates on the webinar programme will be shared in the coming weeks.
- We will use Zoom as platform for the webinar.
- Please register here. We will send you the Zoom link for the webinar later.
- The webinar will be held under Chatham House Rule: all participants are free to use all information received during the webinar, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.
- The organisers will make a short report of the webinar (respecting Chatham House Rule) which will be shared among registered participants and organisers’ constituencies and stakeholders. For this purpose, the webinar will be recorded in Zoom.
About the organisers
Mondiaal FNV is part of the FNV trade union confederation. Mondiaal FNV supports projects in over 100 countries. Mondiaal FNV also advocates and campaigns in the Netherlands to support workers and unions in developing countries, so that their voices can be heard.
Arisa supports and strengthens the defence of human rights in South Asia from the Netherlands, together with local organizations.
SOMO investigates multinationals. Independent, factual, critical and with a clear goal: a fair and sustainable world, in which public interests outweigh corporate interests. SOMO cooperates with hundreds of organisations around the world.
Transparentem works to fundamentally transform industry practices through collective action and collaboration, and to bring real, tangible justice to some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. Through in-depth investigations and strategic engagement with companies, we strive to use corporate leverage to drive change across entire industries.
