OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector
The WRC shared our analysis and experience from the field at three side events during the 2025 OECD Forum. These discussions addressed due diligence, the realities of state-imposed forced labor, and the power of binding agreements in protecting worker rights. Recordings for two of the panels are now available.
Leveraging Due Diligence for Worker Rights Enforcement
Despite the robust labor laws of many garment-producing countries, brands and retailers often fail to ensure compliance, even as they outwardly commit to these legal standards. This failure worsens the erosion of the rule of law, particularly in countries already struggling with weak enforcement.
Thulsi Narayanasamy, WRC Director of International Advocacy, highlighted the tendency of Global North stakeholders to blame manufacturers in the Global South as lawless or inept. She described how the commercial practices of brands themselves are often the root cause of labor rights violations.
Thulsi also highlighted how corporate-driven social audits fail to identify violations, serving instead as tools to protect brand reputations rather than uphold labor rights. Genuine enforcement requires worker-driven oversight and binding agreements, rather than voluntary compliance measures dictated by brands.
Aryane Trejo, WRC Central America Field Representative, described how workers’ victory over union-busting in Honduras has led to 1,200 workers at three factories being able to organize unions and win dignity on the job. When Fruit of the Loom closed down a factory in retaliation for unionization, workers escalated their complaint internationally after meeting with government inaction. A WRC investigation and global support for the workers’ cause led to the factory’s reopening, back pay, and a freedom of association commitment across Fruit of the Loom’s Honduran factories in 2009. This case created new possibilities for workers’ ability to speak out and to organize in Honduran garment factories over the past 15+ years.
State-Imposed Forced Labor: When Disengagement Is the Only Responsible Course of Action
Jewher Ilham, WRC Forced Labor Project Coordinator, described the pervasive use of Uyghur forced labor in China, where state-imposed work transfers from the Uyghur Region force workers into exploitative conditions. In this case, where widespread, egregious human rights violations are being carried out by state actors, it is a practical impossibility for any business to conduct credible due diligence on the ground. Twenty-five percent of the global cotton supply originates from the Uyghur region, making it deeply embedded in global supply chains. Given this reality, investigation and remediation of single cases is not possible—system-wide change is the only solution.
While WRC typically encourages brands to stay and remediate labor rights violations, in this case, disengagement is the only way companies can ensure their products are free from forced labor.
M-POWER Partner Efforts to Address GBVH and Support Collective Bargaining
Binding agreements and collective bargaining have unique potential to address gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the textile and apparel sector. Along with other members of the M-POWER partnership, Rola Abimourched, WRC Deputy Director for Investigations & Gender Equity, underscored that worker-driven solutions, not voluntary corporate programs, are the most effective mechanisms for ensuring workplace protection. The panelists highlighted the Agreements to Combat Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Lesotho’s Garment Industry and the Dindigul Agreement to Eliminate Gender-Based Violence and Harassment, which set critical precedents and the need to advance the ratification and enforcement of ILO Convention 190 on violence and harassment in the world of work.
Spotlight on Women Workers’ Rights at CSW 2025
Women Workers Stand Up to Workplace Violence and Harassment: The Central Java Gender Justice Agreement
Read more about this panel here.
This side meeting at the 69th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) highlighted the newly announced Central Java Gender Justice Agreement—a worker-centered program developed by Indonesian unions, the WRC, Global Labor Justice (GLJ), and Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA).
The legally-binding Central Java Gender Justice Agreement, signed by four Indonesian unions, Korean apparel manufacturer Ontide, WRC, GLJ, and AFWA—with enforceable commitments from global brand Fanatics—protects 6,250 garment workers across two factories in Central Java, Indonesia. Following a video presentation by worker leaders from the factories, Jessica Champagne, WRC Deputy Director of Strategy & Field Operations and Rola Abimourched, Deputy Director of Investigations and Gender Equity, described the program’s union-led GBVH Elimination Committees, investigative mechanisms, remediation processes, and worker education program.
International Labour Organization Convention 190 and Beijing+30: Bridging Gender and Labor
Read more about this panel here.
At the 69th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the C190 Arc Task Force—a coalition of labor and gender justice leaders from 12 global organizations—hosted a discussion highlighting the critical role of ILO C190—a global treaty that sets standards for ending violence and harassment in the world of work. Rola Abimourched, Deputy Director of Investigations and Gender Equity at WRC, spoke on the panel alongside other leaders from labor and gender justice organizations. “C190 comes to life through implementation beyond ratification—through the work of unions and women’s organizations including all of us,” emphasized GLJ Executive Director Jennifer (JJ) Rosenbaum.