Femnet e.V.

The garment industry is an important economic growth engine for the Asia-Pacific region. It is also an industry with a rather poor human rights track record. This study seeks to take stock of developments in the global garment industry. It does so by analysing structural market characteristics and pressing human rights issues as well as existing instruments and initiatives. Specific attention is paid to the role of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI) and to development policies in the global North. Analytically, the investigation is guided by the framework of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP). Important input for the study was obtained at a joint workshop held by the German Institute for Human Rights and the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) in Bangkok in January 2017 at which NHRI representatives from Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand shared their expertise on human rights issues in the garment industry and discussed the challenges their NHRIs are facing.

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The report maps key Bangladesh-based leather manufacturers and foreign buying companies. Understanding production trends and exports and knowing relevant actors in the industry is essential to establish links between the leather industries in Bangladesh, the export markets and all actors involved, as well as for demonstrating gaps in traceability and transparency in leather value chains generally. This mapping lists a number of key manufacturers of leather and leather goods as well as a number of key buyers of these products.

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This publication on mandatory human rights due diligence calls for concrete and comprehensive binding regulations which ensure responsible business conduct. It puts the spotlight on brands’ unfair purchasing practices at the root of human rights violations, their reliance on the flawed social auditing system, the lack of occupational safety, gender inequality, poverty wages, persistent attacks freedom of association, the acute lack of value chain transparency and lack of effective remedy in cases of human rights violations which take place on a mass scale.

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The study documents women garment workers’ experiences of genderbased violence and harassment (GBVH) in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic in Asian production countries. It elaborates “economic harm” as a form of GBVH, underscoring how the business models of global apparel brand and their actions during the pandemic-induced recession exacerbated women worker’s vulnerability to violence both inside the factories and in their homes, families, and communities, leading the feminisation of the COVID-19 crisis.

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This report shows the connections between economic exploitation and gender-based violence against women in the textile industry. It also gives recommendation for action of different stakeholders.

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