Arkiver: artikler

United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights er verdens fremste møteplass for aktører med interesse for ansvarlig næringsliv. Forumet arrangeres i Genève med over 2000 deltakere fra næringsliv, sivilsamfunn, offentlige myndigheter, berørte grupper og internasjonale organisasjoner.

IEH er medarrangør for sesjonen Leading by example? Procurement as lever for human rights due diligence, sammen med Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR), International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) og Harrison Institute for Public Law of Georgetown University Law Center.

Seniorrådgiver fra IEH, Stine Foss sitter i panelet og deltar i debatten onsdag morgen:
– Offentlige anskaffelser er, og vil i fremtiden være, en viktig pådriver for et ansvarlig næringsliv og SDG 12. Dette gjøres ved å stille krav til aktsomhetsvurderinger både som system i kvalifiseringsfase, men også i oppfølging av kontrakter, sier Foss.

Utdrag fra programmet: This session will look at how public procurement at the sub-national level can be used as a lever for greater corporate human rights due diligence. It will focus on identifying transferable good practice examples and lessons learnt from those working with this topic.

Krav til  innkjøpere

I Norge skal den som kjøper varer og tjenester på vegne av offentlig sektor sørge for god kvalitet til riktig pris, og samtidig bidra til å bekjempe samfunnsutfordringer som klimagassutslipp, miljøbelastninger, brudd på menneskerettighetene og arbeidslivskriminalitet, slik det står i lov om offentlige anskaffelser som kom i 2016.

De siste årene har IEH sett økning av medlemmer som leverer varer til offentlig sektor.
– Vår erfaring viser at når offentlige aktører stiller krav og følger opp leverandører vil det også være et økonomisk insentiv for leverandørene til å jobbe med aktsomhetsvurderinger og fremme menneskerettigheter, sier Foss.

Samarbeid om risikovarer

IEH har – i samarbeid med en gruppe medlemmer i offentlig sektor– utarbeidet et prosjektforslag som foreslår nye samarbeidsformer som vil styrke menneskerettighetsperspektivet i offentlige anskaffelser. Ved innovativ organisering og deling av informasjon vil oppdragsgivere spare betydelige ressurser og frustrasjon, samtidig vil kvaliteten heves betraktelig. Men like viktig: når flere går sammen øker påvirkningsmuligheten nedover i leverandørkjeden. 

-Ved å samarbeide og koordinere ytterligere, som de gjør i Sverige vil dette få et mye større omfang enn i dag. Og da snakker vi, sier Stine Foss.

Domstolene i Bangladesh har vedtatt at den lokale driften av The Accord skal opphøre ved utgangen av november. IEH og samarbeidspartnere oppfordrer til videre samarbeide for å sikre trygge arbeidsplasser i tekstilindustrien og videre utvikling av sektoren i Bangladesh.

EU-parlamentet ba i forrige uke myndighetene i Dhaka om å legge til rette for at arbeidet under The Accord kan fortsette også etter november måned.

Du kan lese hele brevet via lenken nederst i artikkelen. Her er noen utdrag fra teksten:

«We understand and value the important role played by the industry in both the global and local economy with around 4 million workers employed in factories in your country. The work undertaken by the Government since the tragic events of 2013 at Rana Plaza, along with that of the ACCORD and the Alliance, has transformed industry safety levels and gone a long way towards establishing the necessary conditions to prevent such a tragedy ever reoccurring…»

“At the same time, however, there is still more to be done to complete the remediation at factories covered by the ACCORD. Less than half of all ACCCORD-covered factories have completed the installation of adequate fire detection systems and less than 60% have completed structural retrofitting, based on approved detailed engineering assessments (DEAs).”

Over 200 kleskjeder har signert

I etterkant av Rana Plaza-tragedien i 2013 der over 1100 mennesker mistet livet, har over 200 kleskjeder fra mer enn 20 land signert avtalen mellom internasjonale kleskjeder og globale fagforeninger, kalt «The Accord».

I Norge har IEH-medlemmene Helly Hansen, Varner, Voice, Princess og Kid Interiør, signert Accord-avtalen. 

Avtalen er juridisk bindende og er et felles løft for å identifisere alvorlige farer i bygningsmasse og tiltak for å utbedre disse for alle de bangladesiske leverandørene til de 200 kleskjedene. 

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Preliminary reports indicated risks of serious labour abuses in the cashew nut industry: Use of prison labour, child workers, unsafe working conditions and lack of contracts to name a few.
Is this really the situation? And if yes, what can we do about it?

Through investigations on the ground, we did find many challenges in the industry, though for some issues the situation was better than expected. Based on the findings we are setting up an action plan to be implemented in collaboration with local partners.

A journey to Vietnam

The work started in 2017 when Norwegian food retailers asked the Ethical Trading Initiative Norway (IEH) to embark on a journey of human rights due diligence in the cashew nut supply chain. It surprised me that they wanted us to focus on a product seemingly so marginal. Yet, a closer look revealed that cashew nuts are a high end product. The volumes in terms of value are substantial.

But where do the cashew nuts come from? Increasingly more of the cashew nuts are grown in African countries such as the Ivory Coast and Ghana, where they protect the soil from turning into deserts. But the African countries lack capacity to process the cashew nuts and remove its shells. So they ship most of them all the way to Vietnam that, with its huge processing capacity, has become the world’s leading exporter of cashew kernels. Vietnam also grows part of the cashews that they process.

Visiting farms

The next step was to map out the conditions at cashew processors and farms. With the help of ETI we found a highly qualified Vietnamese consultant with experience from similar projects. Her experience in dealing with local processors was essential to the success of the project. Access was tricky as the industry protects its reputation, and Government control also seems to make processors cautious. Though small-scale, the study included different kinds of processors – exporters and sub-contractors; state-owned and private; small family-owned, medium-sized and large – as well as cashew farms. The report showed us the risks across the industry.

Were these risks as we anticipated? I found the situation to be better than feared, but there is still a lot to be done. These days the use of prison labour, specifically drug detainees in rehabilitation centres that are forced to work in cashew factories, has fortunately become a marginal phenomenon. However, farmers lack knowledge about child labour requirements, and often children in the family work on the farms. We also found that farmers have poor knowledge and handling of pesticides. The ground water in certain farming areas was polluted and non-potable.

No contracts

The sub-contractors, shelling the cashew nuts, had little knowledge of labour legislation and most workers were employed without work contracts. There were also many health and safety issues. The study showed us that conditions were markedly better at the exporters, though more often than not, the management also acted as trade union representatives. Not surprisingly, these trade unions were not used by the workers to voice grievances.

So how to proceed? Recently we invited suppliers and industry stakeholders to a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City to present our findings and recommendations, and discuss the way forward. We were happy that the Vietnam Cashew Association (VINACAS) co-hosted the event with us, and likewise that Grete Løchen, the Norwegian Ambassador to Vietnam, gave the welcome address. This seems to have been a good starting point for local collaboration and for launching activities aimed at improvements.

Into action…

Now, our next steps are to make a work plan addressing the issues, collaborating with the local industry and stakeholders, and start putting prioritised activities into action. In principle this seems simple, but surely we will have many challenges along the way. But with persistence, we believe that we can have a real impact.

Finally, we would like to invite companies and suppliers, dealing with cashew nuts and wanting to contribute to improved conditions, to get in touch with us.