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As we get into a new year, we wanted to highlight some of the content we've published over the last 12 months. Our blogs and podcasts offer an opportunity for IHRB staff and guests to share their views and reflections. Here are our top ten most-read blogs and listened podcasts of the year.
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Worker-led Research and Recommendations
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Shramik Sanjal (Nepali words for "worker" and "network") advocates for dignity and fairness for millions of Nepalese migrants working around the world. The network individually interviewed over 100 Nepalese migrant workers from more than 30 companies in construction and facilities management in the Middle East to understand recruitment patterns and how recruitment fees affect their living standards and livelihoods. | Read now
These are recommendations for the business community based on migrants’ experiences, to promote accountable and responsible businesses by putting workers’ humanity at the core of operations.
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The State of Business and Human Rights
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As part of our annual Top 10 Business & Human Rights horizon scan, we hosted a conversation with a four diverse experts and practitioners to reflect on the last ten years and look ahead to the key challenges in the decade to come. | Listen now
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There’s a fundamental problem in the field, which is that we can’t actually measure progress and overall trends. The data’s not being collected, and the collection work isn’t being funded.
Far from Home, Hurt in the Shipyard - Now What?
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Many migrant workers in Singapore pay large recruitment fees in their country of origin for low wage jobs in the domestic, construction, and shipyard industries. They often arrive in Singapore already in considerable debt and working excessive overtime. When workers are injured, they struggle to get treatment, help, or compensation. TWC2 is local NGO assisting migrant workers in the shipyards who are unable to work yet also unable to leave Singapore, providing hot food and advice to over 2,000 a year. | Listen now
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[In terms of jobs] the men will pay a larger amount for the promise of something than they will for the certainty of something less...
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Constructing a Thriving Built Environment
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The built environment comprises all the places where we live and work. It has everything to do with our ability to lead healthy, fulfilling lives. We spoke with two pioneering women in Australia who are breaking new ground when it comes to taking a rights-based approach to the construction stage of the lifecycle. | Listen now
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We can’t just talk about technicalities of what’s gone wrong. Putting humans at the centre, we’re asking what’s the cost when we don’t do things properly.
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Despite significant human development advances globally, many people have not benefited from globalisation. This has resulted in countries retreating into a protectionist mode, in response to anxieties felt by an older workforce losing jobs, stagnant wages, and new technologies looming heavily over the future of work itself. We held a major event exploring how to build a principled, people-centred global economy fit for the next generation. Here, some speakers and attendees reflect on the discussions. | Read now
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If the full force of the last decade’s rapid evolution in the norms and practices of business and human rights were fully integrated in trade policy, how might it evolve? This is the exciting challenge that IHRB now seeks to rise to.
Free Association, the Key to Worker Voice
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In 2019 construction firm QDVC undertook elections for Workers’ Welfare Committees in Qatar, a country that does not fully recognise trade union rights. Global union Building and Wood Workers’ International formally observed the process. In this conversation we explore the groundbreaking approach with Jin Sook Lee, BWI’s Global Campaign Director, and Henriette McCool, VINCI’s Social Responsibility Manager and former CSR manager at QDVC. | Read now
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The key to real workers’ voice is representation. For that voice to be fully heard, workers need to be able to form their own organisations they control and engage in collective bargaining.
A Job Description for Facebook's Human Rights Director
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When the social media giant advertised for a Director of Human Rights Policy, we outlined some of the key issues they should expect to be in their in-tray on day one. It is an intimidating list, and not one a single executive - or oversight board - can resolve on their own. | Read now
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What Facebook needs is not someone with a magic formula to transform it into a human rights champion. The company has to reassess what it is, how it does business, and how it values those who use it.
Bangladesh After Rana Plaza
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April 24th 2013 will always be known as the deadliest garment factory accident in history. More than 5 years later, the world is still trying to understand whether the main failings and root causes have been addressed or whether new approaches are needed. Sanchita Saxena of UC Berkeley brought together 15 experts across disciplines in a comprehensive volume, and shared the key findings with us. | Read now
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It puts Rana Plaza into a larger context to help readers understand the structural, managerial, and political conditions within which poor labor standards flourish.
Internet Shutdowns - From Aberration to Norm
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Countries around the world are increasingly and routinely denying internet access to vast parts of the population by requiring providers to shut down service for extensive periods. These periods raise significant risks to human rights - from freedom of expression and assembly to receiving and imparting information, as well as adverse consequences for trade, education, and health. Rohini Lakshané discusses India's long history of shutdowns with us. | Listen now
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There’s no evidence that internet shutdowns are effective in curbing violent protest or activities.
Female, Foreign & Alone - Garment Work in Bangalore
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The living and working conditions of female migrant workers in the garment industry in Bangalore are challenging to say the least: living in hostels, many are underage, have travelled long distances, do not speak the local language, restrict their movement due to fear of gender-based violence, are often not aware of their rights, and have no social groups to fall back on. We spoke with Cividep who are working to educate brands and workers. | Listen now
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Many brands don’t even know there are migrant workers in their supply chains, let alone where they’re living and under what conditions.
The perception of ‘value’ needs to change if the World Bank’s mission is to succeed
Last week we attended the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C. The annual IMF-World Bank meetings bring together finance ministers and central bankers from all regions as a platform for official...
26 April 2024 | Commentary
Commentary by Vasuki Shastry, Author, ESG/Strategic Communications Expert; International Advisory Council, IHRB Haley St. Dennis, Head of Just Transitions, IHRB