Imposing environmental and social standards, on an international level. At the pre-G7 conference, held from 10 to 11 March in Berlin, the German government clearly expressed its intention to launch a long term process and to ultimately develop a system of environmental and social standards, to sustainably improve the situation for workers and the conditions for production in the textile industry. The idea is to eventually use the experience from application in this sector before extending it to all areas of economic activity. “As a developed industrial nation, we can influence production processes across the world. If we don’t want our hunger for consumption to lead to meagre wages in the textile industry, to children being forced to work, to bins full of electronic waste or to polluted rivers, we must take political action to make commerce sustainable and fair.
Germany to promote “sustainable supply chains” and decent work during G7 Presidency
Two years after the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1,000 Bangladeshi workers in the clothing industry, the German government has decided to focus on sustainable development during its presidency of the G7. In particular, the German government would like to highlight the issue of supply chain standards in the textile sector. As part of this, a conference in preparation for the G7 summit (7 and 8 June 2015) entitled “Environmental and Social Standards in Supply Chains” was held from 10 to 11 March in Berlin. Starting with the textile industry, the objective is to ultimately create an exemplary system which establishes social and ecological standards, on an international level, which are more developed than those of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and which are applicable to all areas of production and distribution. The German Minister of Labour, Andréa Nahles, has focused on the possibility of forms of arbitration giving workers the chance to report abuses. Another proposal is the creation of a fund, paid into by member states, to finance monitoring, so that standards are respected.
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