News - The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textiles Partnership)

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OECD Review of the Textile Covenant - Opportunity for Improvement

Bonn/Berlin. The fashion industry celebrates Berlin Fashion Week – but questions about social and environmental consequences are, as every year, neglected. The Alliance for Sustainable Textiles, founded in 2014, has begun to gradually eliminate the grievances in global textile supply chains. So far, the balance sheet has been meager. A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommends adapting the review process. The civil society in the Textile Alliance sees the reform now planned as an opportunity to make the alliance more effective.

The criticism of the OECD corresponds in key points to the previous demands of civil society. The Textile Alliance expects its member companies to take action to eliminate or reduce human rights and environmental risks in their supply chains. An independent review process is designed to ensure that member companies comply with this requirement. So far, however, this review process does not assess whether companies have identified the main risks, such as far too low wages or climate emissions, nor whether the measures taken are appropriate to address the risks. Similar to the OECD, a study by the Oeko-Institut concludes that a qualitative assessment of companies' action plans is not yet possible.

Reform as an Opportunity

In response to the external, critical review, the Textile Alliance now wants to optimize the review process. The civil society member organisations see potential in this reform. A clear orientation towards the OECD recommendations would strengthen the international orientation of the Alliance and require companies to comply with their human rights due diligence obligations in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles and the OECD Guidelines. This includes greater transparency in the review process. OECD standards require companies to publicly report on identified risks in their supply chain and measures taken to address them, as well as their effectiveness.

Improvement needs ambitious content

In the reorientation of the review process, the textile alliance must not fall behind the consensus on previous binding goals. For example, the textile alliance must stick to the goal that by 2020 at least 10% of the cotton procured from member companies is organically certified. "The focus on living wages needs to be taken up more consistently by all companies. The lack of progress on this issue is currently frustrating and the opportunity offered by an alliance initiative to make a difference in Cambodia is not being seized by everyone," says Berndt Hinzmann of the INKOTA network.

Greater coherence with OECD requirements means that companies capture and effectively eliminate significant risks in their supply chain, such as gender-based violence in the workplace and trade union freedom. "This requires clear guidance from the Textile Alliance on what companies are expected to do to combat these key labour rights violations in the textile sector", emphasises Dr Sabine Ferenschild from the Südwind Institute.

Finally, it is clear from the previous developments in the Textile Alliance that important industry approaches such as the Textile Alliance urgently need to be supplemented by legal regulations. "Otherwise, progress remains too slow, as committed companies are penalised by higher costs from the market, while companies that are not members of the Textile Alliance do not have to bear any consequences", explains Dr Gisela Burckhardt of FEMNET.

contact

Johannes Norpoth
Coordinator of the civil society member organisations in the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel. 0175-92 331 78

About the Textile Alliance

The Alliance for Sustainable Textiles is an initiative launched in 2014 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development with the aim of continuously improving social, ecological and economic sustainability along the entire textile chain. More at: https://www.textilbuendnis.com/. 18 civil society organisations are members of the Textile Alliance and are represented in the steering committee by the following three NGOs: FEMNET, INKOTA network, SOUTH WIND Institute.