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FEMNET Statement on International Women's Day 2022

Putin’s cruel war in Ukraine shows us once again what destructive forces dictatorships can develop – and how important resistance is. active protection of human rights and a strong civil society are. We express our solidarity with the courageous people in Ukraine who are fighting against the violent attack and for their lives. In particular, on International Women's Day, we declare our solidarity with all women who are exposed to hardship and violence.

In order to enforce human rights and secure democracy and peace in the long term, we must fundamentally change our moral principles in dealing with dictatorships and regimes hostile to the rule of law: It must not be that we accept human rights violations in order to increase our profit. We source raw materials from Russia, a country ruled by an autocrat who has been erasing freedom of expression, oppressing civil society, murdering opposition figures and waging wars for years. Government regulation is also increasingly restricting and threatening the work of our NGO partners in India and Bangladesh. Western companies produce clothes in brutal military states such as Myanmar, use exploitative forced labour from Uyghurs living in China, and take advantage of the exploitation of women in the factories of India and Bangladesh.

We call on companies and politicians to take responsibility for bringing democratic principles and values into the focus of global trade. We finally need binding rules to protect and strengthen people's rights in a sustainable way. Presented by the European Commission at the end of February, European supply chain law is a first step. But it does not go far enough – including in terms of the protection and rights of women and girls.

It is they who are particularly affected by inhumane working conditions along global supply chains, especially in low-wage sectors of the Global South such as the garment industry. They often work at starvation wages, have to work unpaid overtime, face violence in the workplace – and also take care of family and household. A supply chain law can only change this if it explicitly enshrines women's rights.

Businesses must be required to pay living wages that are sufficient for women and their families to live on. You must contact your business partners Family-friendly working conditions work and work to ensure that women paid maternity leave and maintain their health as part of the Occupational health and safety Recognised. Businesses must Freedom of trade union Promote and protect active trade unionists. Last but not least, they have to turn their suppliers into one. Zero tolerance towards harassment and violence in the workplace and support the implementation of gender-sensitive measures.

The work of FEMNET over the past 15 years shows that there are effective measures against the exploitation of workers and violence in the workplace. For example, the educational work in textile factories in Bangladesh, as we were able to implement in the project #GegenGewalt with our partner on the ground.

In addition, we are concerned with breaking through the structures of exploitation, we work together with politics and the economy to improve the conditions of production. For example, as part of an initiative of the Textile Alliance in South India, where our partner organisation SAVE supports the establishment of complaints committees in spinning mills to which women can turn.

And together with partners from India and Indonesia, we have launched a new project to better protect the health of women in the factories.

Help promote fairer and better working conditions for women.

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