 Human Rights First Testifies at the Congressional Human Rights Caucus Briefing on Human Rights and Brand Accountability: How Multinationals Can Promote Labor Rights
In his testimony, Michael Posner, HRF President, discussed today’s trend among multinational corporations towards greater outsourcing and the need to develop a set of “rules of the road” for these supply chain operations, especially relating to the rights of factory workers. Posner identified challenges in developing these rules of the road and made several recommendations for addressing them. He outlined the need to determine what the rules are, or should be; decide how compliance with those rules will be assessed, and by whom; analyze how to address non-compliance with those rules once violations have been identified and reported, and develop models for sustainable compliance. Posner focused on the evolution of the Fair Labor Association (FLA), an organization that HRF helped to establish and sustain. The FLA is pressing companies to extend the boundaries of corporate accountability by requiring greater transparency, meaningful engagement between companies, NGOs, and the university community, and innovative approaches to promote sustainable compliance. Posner also urged the Congress to press the Executive Branch to engage in more aggressive bilateral diplomacy with China and other governments that restrict the right of freedom of association and other core labor standards.
02/16/06
 Human Rights First Comments on Fair Labor Association Report
Media Alert
11/16/05
Human Rights First Testifies before Congressional Human Rights Caucus on Corporate Responsibility
In his testimony, HRF Deputy Washington Director and Senior Counsel Eric Biel highlighted what is needed for “voluntary” corporate social responsibility measures to be effective, citing the Fair Labor Association as one example that meets these criteria. He also stressed that in some cases, where corporations are complicit in severe human rights violations, there needs to be a legal “backstop” to ensure accountability; voluntary measures are simply not enough in those instance.
Read Eric Biel’s Testimony (PDF-96KB)
Background
In the last decade the global expansion of the market
economy has produced what some call a “world without walls”.
In the rush to find cheaper and quicker ways to produce shoes, apparel,
and other labor-intensive goods for the global marketplace, multinational
corporations are moving much of their manufacturing to countries where
basic legal protections for workers are non-existent and union organizing
is prohibited or discouraged. Workers drive the new international economy,
yet millions of them—typically women and children—daily endure
substandard working conditions ranging from inadequate wages to inhumane
hours to life-threatening hazards in the workplace.
Workers are largely unprotected from these abuses by either their own governments or the international system. Though the International Labor Organization has articulated labor rights standards for 80 years, these assume that national governments will enforce them. Unfortunately, many governments lack the capacity and often the will to do so. Even in the United States, effective regulation and protection of workers has been eroded at the low-wage end of the labor market. “Sweatshops” are a global phenomenon.
Such consequences have sparked a growing public demand for corporations to take responsibility for a range of human rights and environmental problems in countries where they operate. Human Rights First’s own commitment to pursue labor rights as human rights was a response to these developments. The challenge is to create accountability—independent, transparent, and enforceable mechanisms for ensuring that human rights standards protect ordinary people.
We are convinced that local, national and international human rights groups need to work together to leverage consumer interest in labor practices and company brand sensitivity, to help protect workers’ rights. Enabling consumers to become well-informed about specific company practices – piercing the veil between brand names and a web of abusive contractors and suppliers – creates the kind of market pressure that strongly encourages corporate compliance with international human rights standards in a regular and systematic way. Much work needs to be done to ensure that corporate social responsibility becomes more than a passing fad and translates into real protection for workers.
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