Human Rights and Garment Conference

Transforming the supply chain together

Programme

10:00 Welcome by Christiaan Rebergen, Director General for International Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

10:10 Introduction to the Strategic Partnership

10:30 Keynote on Due Diligence from Jennifer Schappert, Policy Advisor, OECD

• With the recent release of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector, enterprises have more information than ever on what due diligence in their supply chains should look like. But how do stakeholders use the guidance effectively and what will it take to ensure the guidance is implemented? Jennifer Schappert, Policy Advisor, Textile and Garment from the OECD will present and discuss this with audience participation.

11:00 Break

11:20 Promising Practices

• The partners of the Strategic Partnership will share case studies of promising practices in Living Wages, Social Dialogue and Gender-based Violence. With audience participation we will look at how these cases can be replicated or improved, and who is needed to do so.

12.00 Interview with Jef Wintermans, Secretariat, Dutch Covenant on Sustainable Garments and Textiles and Ineke Zeledenrust, Clean Clothes Campaign

• How are signatories of the Dutch Covenant using the OECD Guidance and approaching due diligence, and what challenges do various stakeholders in the industry still face? Mr. Wintermans will share a new tool being developed by the Covenant and discuss their role in the implementation.

12:30 Lunch

13:30 Workshops (running in parallel)

• Living Wages:
  Despite two decades of discussion about living wages in the garment industry, factories that reliably pay a living wage are nearly impossible to come by. The vast majority of garment workers’ wages are simply too low to live on; it is time to stop talking and start paying more. This workshop intends to move past standard discussions about living wage levels and benchmarks and instead offers participants the opportunity to take a hands-on approach to the mechanics of raising wages.
  
  
• Gender-Based Violence:
  Violence at the workplace continues to be one of the most harrowing forms of abuse of human rights where labor is concerned, but currently there is no international standard that could be the foundation for better regulations. The International Labour Organisation ILO has however put a standard setting item on the agenda of the 2018 International Labour Conference (ILC), under the name of 'Violence against women and men in the world of work'. In this session we will discuss in a multi-stakeholder setting why we need a standard and which elements a standard should cover.
  
  
• Social Dialogue:
  This workshop will explore the main challenges in Social Dialogue and explain in interactive and entertaining way how all labour unions, employers, employees and governments can benefit from Social Dialogue and which roles each has to play to make it successful. In more detail the multi company collective bargaining agreement will be shared as a new model of social dialogue in Indonesia, involving factories, local government and trade unions. Also the Freedom of Association Protocol in Indonesia will be explored as an example of multi-level social dialogue implementation involving brands, factories and trade unions (national & factory level).

15:00 Wrap Up

15:30 Networking and Drinks

How to register: conference18may@congresbureau.nl.

Location: New World Campus, The Hague