Fair Wear and GoodWeave partner to combat child, forced labour in fashion supply chains

Fair Wear Foundation and GoodWeave International, two organisations advocating for fair working practices in the textile industry, have joined forces to address child and forced labour in “hidden and informal parts of apparel and textile supply chains”.

They said their combined resources will help companies “seeking to respect human rights and conduct responsible business” as the EU continues to work on mandatory human rights due diligence legislation for the textile industry.

Fair Wear member brands sourcing from India are encouraged to become GoodWeave licensees and benefit from “deep supply chain mapping and inspections for child, forced, and bonded labour that reach beyond Tier One factories and into sub-contracted and home-based worksites where the majority of exploitation takes place”.

They added that remediation and prevention programmes are also carried out.

GoodWeave will also act as a knowledge partner for Fair Wear and as a resource for member brands on child, forced, and bonded labour identification, remediation and prevention.

Suhasini Singh, the head of supply chain engagement at Fair Wear, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with GoodWeave to further advance our member companies’ human rights due diligence efforts.

“We’ve successfully worked together on a previous project and chose to continue partnering with GoodWeave given their expertise in stopping child labour and creating supply chain visibility specifically related to subcontracted and home-based worksites.”