Femnet e.V.

Pressemeldungen - Unternehmensverantwortung & Lieferkettengesetz

25 June 2021 Federal Cross of Merit for FEMNET Chairman Gisela Burckhardt

The Federal President has awarded Dr. Gisela Burckhardt the Federal Cross of Merit. In doing so, he honours the tireless commitment of the women's rights activist to a dignified and self-determined life of thousands of textile workers in the global South.

"Anyone who has seen the misery of women can't pretend it has nothing to do with us," says Gisela Burckhardt and she knows what she's talking about. Working in development cooperation for a long time, the post-doctoral educator was confronted with discrimination and exploitation of women. Whether in Nicaragua, Pakistan or Ethiopia: Her many years of experience abroad have made the topic of women's rights her personal life project. Particularly formative was an experience in Pakistan, where she tried to tap into sources of income for Afghan refugees. “I have seen women being treated as work animals and birth machines all around me, which has made me madly angry.” At that time, she became a feminist.

With all its consequences, Burckhardt is committed to helping women achieve their right to fair and livelihood-enhancing work. She laid the foundation for this in the Clean Clothes Campaign, where she successfully campaigned for labour rights for women employed in the textile sector, before founding FEMNET in 2007.

Mayor Katja Dörner (left) and Dr. Gisela Burkhardt at the handover of the Federal Cross of Merit in the Old Town Hall. © Sascha Engst/Federal City of Bonn FEMNET has continuously expanded it – and has been able to attract more and more people to the cause. She is strongly committed to educating about the working conditions of seamstresses in Southeast Asia. “The women who make clothes in Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Vietnam or India do it for us, and they do it on behalf of European corporations, because they cost so little and because there are hardly any environmental and social standards in these countries. Clothing is produced on their backs.”

True to the maxim ‘Rights for people, rules for companies’, it sees it as the most important task to hold fashion companies accountable if their suppliers violate labour and human rights. Disasters such as the collapse of Rana Plaza should not disappear as news from yesterday. Rather, Gisela Burckhardt wants to follow these events sustainably and demand structures that lead to real improvements.

She and her team, together with partner organisations in India and Bangladesh, have done so on many occasions – paying compensation through legal assistance, setting up complaint committees in factories, raising hourly wages, to name but a few of the successes.

Gisela Burckhardt is critical, does not let up, but it would be too short-handed to see in her only the combative fighter. It tackles change, sometimes indomitable to business and politics, but always open to dialogue, encouraging and approaching. In this way, it has managed to mobilize people for fairness along the supply chain. Last but not least, it is thanks to their commitment that the goals of gender equality, decent work and sustainable consumption set out in the 2030 Agenda have paved the way for the fashion and textile industry.

As Gisela Burckhardt put it a few years ago, she wanted to raise ‘awareness of the injustice, often even injustice, that women all over the world are facing’. Her wake-up call has long been heard by companies, politicians and the public, as her voice is recognized as that of a renowned expert.

Burckhardt's conviction that women are not only victims, but can also be strong, underpins them with a deeply rooted care. It is this care that makes her the bridge-builder between us here and the women there. The fates of the – often very young – textile workers, with whom she has always sought personal contact on her travels to India and Bangladesh, are the driving force behind her tireless commitment. The joint work with trade unionists and employees of the partner organisations – and the deep connections they have developed – are not only evidence of reliable and successful cooperation. Gisela Burckhardt's longtime comrade-in-arms Rukmini V. Puttaswamy, head of an Indian women's union, will take office on July 7th. She was awarded the Bremen Solidarity Prize on her initiative on 1 December 2021. The award for Rukmini Puttaswarmy, as well as the award of the Federal Cross of Merit to Gisela Burckhardt, are a sign of genuine solidarity between North and South.

 

“Only a world where women have the same rights as men, where women receive the same pay as men, where men cannot deprive women of their rights and debase them with impunity – only such a world has the chance to survive.”
Dr. Gisela Burckhardt

 

With her vision, assertiveness and integrity, Gisela Burckhardt demonstrates how powerful engagement can be – a role model for women worldwide.