Publications

Child Bondage Continues in Indian Cotton Supply Chain

Publication Date: 

September 1, 2007

ILRF, along with international partners including OECD Watch, India Committee of the Netherlands, Deutsche Welthungerhilfe and Eine Welt Netz NRW, released a report focused on recent trends in employment of child labor on cottonseed farms in India. The report estimates that roughly 416,460 children, out of which 224,960 are under the age of 14, are still working on cottonseed farms in the four major producing states in India, representing an increase from the 2003-2004 harvest season.

Letter of Concern to Wal-Mart re: Global Social Compliance Program

Publication Date: 

August 30, 2007

Dear Mr. Scott,

We are concerned with the recent initiative developed by Carrefour, Metro, Migros, Tesco, and Wal-Mart. The Global Social Compliance Programme is being lauded as a new effort to create a unified code of best practices to improve labor standards and create a new efficiency in the auditing process. However, we have several reservations regarding the code.

Labor Conditions in the Tajikistan Cotton Industry

Publication Date: 

August 1, 2007

Over the past five years, the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) has received growing evidence of systematic conditions in the cotton industry that lead to widespread use of forced and child labor, affecting millions of children and adults in countries including India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Egypt, Pakistan, and China. ILRF is committed to building awareness of the worldwide problem, promoting the use of trade policy instruments to combat child labor in global cotton production, and building ethical alternatives to cotton produced by forced and child labor.

Trade Pressure Used to Support Workers

Publication Date: 

June 1, 2007

Philips- Van Heusen plant in Guatemala

The first time Guatemala was placed under review (probation) for eligibility of GSP benefits was in 1992 after US/GLEP (before the name changed to USLEAP) and nine other U.S. human rights, trade union and religious groups filed a worker rights petition with the support of the Guatemalan trade union movement. The AFL-CIO also filed a petition.

Pages