Nachrichten & Pressemeldungen - © FEMNET 30 November 2021 The EU Supply Chain Act must be gender-responsive The European Coalition for Business Justice and 60 civil society organisations have sent an open letter to EU Commissioners and other policy makers calling on them to make the future human rights and environmental due diligence legislation of companies gender-sensitive. The open letter to the European Union of 29 November 2021 (PDF file) Following is the open letter to the European Union of 29.11.2021: Subject: Urgent call to ensure gender-responsive and effective human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) legislation and corporate accountability Dear President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen,Dear Vice-President Vera Jourová,Dear Commissioner Thierry Breton,Dear Commissioner Helena Dalli,Dear Commissioner Didier Reynders,Dear Members of Parliament,Dear representatives of the Council of the European Union, 29 November – International Women Human Rights Defenders Day – is a day to celebrate women working for human rights and the environment around the world. Fighting on the front lines against all forms of discrimination and inequality and protecting the rights of the environment, land and indigenous peoples, human rights defenders face constant harassment, detention, stigmatisation, criminalisation and murder, in addition to gender-based forms of violence and discrimination, including sexual violence. Gender-responsive corporate accountability and due diligence arrangements are urgently needed to address these deep-rooted inequalities. In 2020, 13% of the 331 human rights defenders killed worldwide were women.[i]. Most of these murders occurred as part of business activities, with Latin America being the most affected region.[ii]. Gender impact on women exists in all sectors[iii], from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing, agriculture, accommodation and food industry[iv] and the clothing sector, where women make up 80 percent of the workforce[v]. In addition, 71 percent of people living in modern slavery are women.[vi]. Moreover, as gender discrimination often overlaps with other forms of discrimination, many women are discriminated against on the basis of ethnic origin, age, class, caste, migration status, gender identity and/or other factors.[vii]. The European Union now has the opportunity to protect the rights of the nearly 190 million women working in global supply chains through the upcoming Sustainable Corporate Governance Directive. The Directive should focus on gender due diligence, take into account intersectionality and focus on the gender dimensions of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.[viii] and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance to provide companies with gender-specific guidance. In this context, the gender-specific recommendations in the Sustainable Corporate Governance Directive must: Include in the normative scope references to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Convention on Migrant Workers and the ILO Convention 190 on the Elimination of Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. establish robust liability rules that allow victims to have access to justice and to seek effective redress, for example by removing time hurdles, difficulties in accessing evidence, risks of adverse impacts, as well as gender inequalities, vulnerabilities and marginalisation, which can constitute major practical and procedural barriers and affect victims’ access to effective remedies. cover the entire value chain, including semi-formal and informal working models, as well as unofficial subcontracting and home-based work, which take place in particular within the first links of the value chains, as they affect disproportionately many women and are one of the main causes of forced labour. apply to companies of all sizes, as the sectors where women are most affected by gender-based human rights violations include many small and medium-sized enterprises (e.g. clothing sector).[ix] identify gender-based violence and sexual harassment as serious risks to human rights violations that need to be prevented, eliminated and alleviated. Ensure gender-sensitive human rights and environmental impact assessments, including by using disaggregated data (by gender, ethnicity, age, migration status, etc.) and result indicators to assess the actual impact of business activities on women, including how they contribute to unpaid care work, as well as by taking into account the intersectional nature of discrimination. Companies should also monitor and monitor the implementation and effectiveness of the measures adopted. The results must be published and serve as a basis for possible changes in global business operations and human rights and environmental due diligence. ensure a gender-responsive approach to stakeholder engagement and warning mechanisms; effective stakeholder engagement must be carried out without the risk of retaliation and with free, timely and informed consent. Stakeholder engagement should aim to understand how existing contexts and/or vulnerabilities can have a disproportionate impact on marginalised groups such as women and children, migrant workers, home workers, temporary workers, indigenous peoples and communities, etc. Particular attention should be paid to the implementation of a gender approach to ensure the safe and equal participation of women in decision-making processes, especially where they are not represented for cultural or traditional reasons. Include corporate purchasing practices in the framework of human rights and environmental due diligence[x]. Profit maximization at the expense of human and labour rights as well as environmental damage and irresponsible practices in terms of prices, delivery times or payment conditions affect all female employees. Women are disproportionately affected in sectors such as the clothing industry and agriculture. Unfair purchasing practices also have numerous impacts on female workers, including their wage levels, and lead to precarious hiring and abusive overtime practices. A gender-responsive approach to EU business regulation will be instrumental in achieving the goals of international commitments such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Beijing Declaration, which set out a clear roadmap for the EU to take responsibility for promoting women's and girls' rights. In order to eliminate the persistent gender inequalities that prevent many women and girls affected by the activities of European businesses from living a safe and good life, strong political action in line with the Gender Equality Strategy and Gender Action Plan III is urgently needed.[xi]. The Sustainable Corporate Governance Directive must ensure that European companies are required to change their own practices and business models, bear the costs of complying with the rules on prevention of damage and bear the judicial and administrative consequences if they do not do so. It represents a unique opportunity to combat gender inequality and discrimination in global value chains. We appeal to you to take advantage of this opportunity and to include our recommendations in the text. Yours sincerely, ActionAid International Aktionsgemeinschaft Solidarische Welt e.V. ASW (Germany) ALTSEAN-Burma Anti-Slavery International Association of A World Country Networks in Germany e.V. Association of Ethical Shareholders Germany Broederlijk Delen (Belgium) Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) CARE International CCFD-Terre Solidaire (France) Christian Initiative Romero (CIR) Clean clothes campaign Coordinadora Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Pequeños Productores y Trabajadores de Comercio Justo (CLAC) CorA Network for Corporate Accountability (Germany) Corporate Justice Coalition (UK) Association for Development Policy Baden-Württemberg, DEAB e.V. (Germany) Development Policy Network Saxony ENS (Germany) EU-LAT Network European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) European Network Committees Oscar Romero European Federation of Public Service Trade Unions (ETUC) Fair trade advocacy office Fairtrade Deutschland e.V. Fairtrade International Fédération internationale pour les Droits Humains / International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) FEMNET e.V. Friends of the Earth Europe Global Policy Forum Europe Global Witness Human Rights International Corner ETS (Italy) Human rights watch INKOTA network International Dalit Solidarity Network IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands Justice et Paix (Belgium) New Financial Forum Foundation (Netherlands) Oidhaco: Oficina Internacional de Derechos Humanos Acción (Colombia) Open Society European Policy Institute OQ Consulting BV (Netherlands/Germany) Our food. Our Future (OFOF) Oxfam International Pax Christi International PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants) Polish Institute for Human Rights and Business Rainforest Alliance Réseau France Colombie Solidarités - RFCS (France) ShareAction Category: South winds of Austria Swedwatch TERRE DES FEMMES e.V. (Germany) Vamos por la paz - Ensemble pour la paix (France/Colombia) Vredesactie (Belgium) WEED – World Economy, Ecology & Development e.V. Workshop economy (Germany) WeWorld Onlus (Italy) Women Engage for a Common Future - WECF International Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom World House, betting (Germany) World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) WSM (Belgium) sources [i] Front Line Defenders 2020 Global Analysis: https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/resource-publication/global-analysis-2020 [ii] Global Witness 2020 report: https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/last-line-defence/ [iii] ActionAid ‘We mean business’: https://actionaid.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/We-Mean-Business-Protecting-Womens-Rights-in-Global-Supply-Chains _ActionAid_March-2020.pdf [iv] Oxfam, Not in this together: How supermarkets became pandemic winners while women workers are losing out, 2021: https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/621194/bp-not-in-this-together-220621-en.pdf?sequence=22 [v] Clean Clothes Campaign Fashioning justice paper: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2021/fashioning-justice [vi] Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, ILO, 2017: //www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf">https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf [vii] Center for Intersectional Justice 2019 report: https://www.intersectionaljustice.org/img/intersectionality-report-FINAL_yizq4j.pdf [viii] United Nations, Gender dimensions of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, 2019 https://undocs.org/A/HRC/41/43 [ix] Clean Clothes Campaign Fashioning justice paper: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2021/fashioning-justice [x] Open letter to the European Commission to take action against unfair purchasing practices, 2021: https://cleanclothes.org/file-repository/210715_eu_csos_purchasing_practices_letter_final.pdf/view [xi] ECCJ & Anti-Slavery International “what if” 2020 report: http://corporatejustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/asi_eccj_report_final.pdf
