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"Service Learning Digital - Social Commitment despite Social Distance" is the motto under which students of the University of Cologne support non-profit organisations in interdisciplinary teams for one semester. FEMNET implemented a project both in the summer semester 2020 and in the winter semester 2020/21 – in the summer, the students supported the campaign work around the Fashion checker on the issues of fair wages and transparency. In the winter, a group worked on educational materials on the topic of climate and clothing, which should show the connection between climate damage and the clothing industry with participatory methods.

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According to estimates by the business association BGMEA, around 400,000 jobs were lost in Bangladesh's textile industry in 2020. Even after resuming production, many factories are still not working at full capacity. Granted financial aid from the EU and Germany for affected seamstresses has not yet flowed completely. In India, too, the situation remains critical.

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The supply chain law is coming, that's for sure. A positive move, as the law can be passed before the upcoming federal election this year. As a result, companies are obliged to take responsibility for human rights and the environment. Violations should be controlled by a federal agency. If an undertaking breaches its obligations, the authority may impose fines and exclude the undertaking from public contracts. This is, after all, a step forward from the previous voluntary approaches.

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An alliance of twelve non-governmental organisations criticises the fact that the federal government is not taking binding steps to make the federal government's procurement of textiles fair and sustainable. This is because the recently published ‘Guide of the Federal Government for Sustainable Textile Procurement in the Federal Administration’ lacks the announced step-by-step plan. The federal ministries clearly missed their own target of procuring half of the textiles according to social and ecological criteria by 2020.

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© Taslima Akter

Textile manufacturers' associations from six Asian countries have launched a joint initiative to strengthen their negotiating position for better purchasing practices vis-à-vis Western fashion brands. Because they face the same challenges - cancelled orders, arrears and discounts during the corona pandemic threaten the entire textile industry and thus lead to wage cuts and lost wages for the seamstresses.

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Before the FEMNET team enters the company holidays (21.12. – 02.01.), let us look back once again at a year that will echo for a long time to come.

‘2020 will be a great year ...’, with this expectant outlook we said goodbye to the Christmas and New Year’s Eve break exactly one year ago.

In retrospect, the year actually appears overwhelmingBut in a sense that no one expected. The coronavirus pandemic has changed a lot. Plans became obsolete, projects stopped, changes needed.

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© Anne Bienias

Since the beginning of the corona crisis, textile workers around the world have been protesting for the continued payment of their wages and for the preservation of their jobs. The loss of wages, even for goods already manufactured, is immense. Many companies evade their responsibility towards textile workers because they do not have to fear consequences. However, the international protests are also achieving their first successes.

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Since the beginning of the crisis, this has combined the risk of COVID-19 infection with the exacerbated risk of extreme economic hardship for workers. In addition, since the beginning of the crisis, trade unions have been increasingly exposed to discrimination. In view of the economic crisis, some manufacturing countries, in particular India and Indonesia, are relying on lowering the standards of protection in their labour laws.

The “Synthesis report: impact of COVID-19 on the textile industry” (PDF file) compiles concrete options for action and best practices based on a systematic analysis of existing reports. The recovery options show how companies can avoid or at least mitigate negative effects of the COVID-19 crisis on workers in the supply chain and thus comply with human rights due diligence obligations.

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