All News & Press Releases

Fair fashion show on Bonn's Münsterplatz at the Rundum Fair. © Tam Tran

Bonn. "All-round fair" will take place on Saturday, September 28, at Münsterplatz: As part of Fair Week 2019, an alliance of initiatives and associations invites you to a public fair breakfast from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fairly traded coffee, tea, spreads and many other delicacies await visitors, as well as the presentation of fair-produced clothing at a fashion show as a highlight.

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© Initiative Supply Chain Act

The German government must legally oblige German companies to comply with human rights and environmental standards worldwide. This is called for by a broad alliance of 64 civil society organisations, including FEMNET and the CorA Corporate Responsibility Network, on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the devastating fire disaster at the Ali Enterprises textile factory in Pakistan.

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Berlin / Bonn. Today's presentation of the new ‘Green Button’ textile label by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) uses civil society in the Textile Alliance to determine a critical location. The members of the civil society alliance criticise the fact that the Green Button, like the Textile Alliance, is only a voluntary measure. However, there is an urgent need for a law that makes human rights, environmental and anti-corruption due diligence mandatory for all companies. This law must form the basis for social, ecological and economic sustainability. Voluntary measures such as the Green Button and an improved textile alliance could build on this.

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Berlin / Bonn. Today's presentation of the new ‘Green Button’ textile label by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) uses civil society in the Textile Alliance to determine a critical location. The members of the civil society alliance criticise the fact that the Green Button, like the Textile Alliance, is only a voluntary measure. However, there is an urgent need for a law that makes human rights, environmental and anti-corruption due diligence mandatory for all companies. This law must form the basis for social, ecological and economic sustainability. Voluntary measures such as the Green Button and an improved textile alliance could build on this.

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Berlin / Bonn. Today's presentation of the new ‘Green Button’ textile label by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) uses civil society in the Textile Alliance to determine a critical location. The members of the civil society alliance criticise the fact that the Green Button, like the Textile Alliance, is only a voluntary measure. However, there is an urgent need for a law that makes human rights, environmental and anti-corruption due diligence mandatory for all companies. This law must form the basis for social, ecological and economic sustainability. Voluntary measures such as the Green Button and an improved textile alliance could build on this.

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As a new state meta-seal for eco-socially produced clothing, the ‘Green Button’ is intended to give consumers more orientation in the cash jungle in the future. The pilot phase is scheduled to start in September 2019. However, FEMNET and the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) warn against misleading statements.

The label suggests a completely fair and sustainable product through its addition ‘social & ecological – state-certified’. However, it does not cover the entire supply chain, but initially only refers to clothing and wet processes (washing, dyeing). This means that the often bad working conditions, for example in cotton cultivation or in spinning mills, are not checked. However, this is not made clear to consumers.

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Bonn / Berlin. The civil society organisations in the Textile Alliance criticise the roadmaps and progress reports of the member companies in the alliance. In its current form, these are not meaningful and poorly comparable. The roadmaps also showed that many companies are still at the very beginning when it comes to living wages. In addition, better working conditions in supply chains could be achieved if companies cooperate more frequently. On Monday, the Textile Alliance published roadmaps and progress reports of its members. In it, they show what measures they want to take in the field of human rights and ecology in textile production for the next year and whether planned measures were implemented in the previous year.

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Bonn. The Fair Trade Town Bonn is richer by one consumer temple. On 13.08. the fashion giant Primark opens in front of the main station with cheap clothes on 8000m2. But really cheap here is only the business model: What the commodity actually costs people and the environment, the prices do not reflect. FEMNET and Bonn im Wandel call on the day of the opening to talk about mass consumption and the future of the city. More than 20 organisations are already supporting the campaign ‘Better living without Primark’.

The Alliance's appeal is against waste, pollution and human rights violations. With information stands and changing clothes, FEMNET and Bonn are showing that things can be different. From 10 a.m., visitors can expect a colourful program in Poststraße. Politicians, organisations and citizens are invited to join the “Live better without Primark-Talk” and talk about better concepts of urban development.

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Öko-Test has tested 21 jeans for residues in the laboratory. But Öko-Test also wanted to know more about the production conditions under which the jeans are manufactured and therefore asked FEMNET for advice on the development of the questionnaire to the companies and the evaluation of the answers.

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Wuppertal. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) plans to introduce a state metaseal for socially and ecologically produced textiles. This metaseal is to be awarded under the name ‘Grüner Knopf’ on behalf of the BMZ for clothing and other textile products.

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© IndustriAll

Governments and businesses are now required to implement the Convention in practice

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the member states adopted the new International Convention No. 190 against Violence and Harassment in the World of Work by an overwhelming majority at the end of June 2019. This legally binding international treaty, which was supplemented by a recommendation for concrete implementation by the member states, is a historic victory for workers and their representatives:

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