Time to Drive Child Labour From Value Chains

Patricia Jurewicz, director of the Responsible Sourcing Network, a project of As You Sow, has an op-ed piece at ethicalcorp.com, Time to Drive Child Labour From Value Chains:

During the recent International Cotton and Textile Fair in Tashkent, not a single western buyer signed a contract for Uzbekistan’s cotton, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. This boycott demonstrates the strength of a pledge signed by more than 60 apparel manufacturers, brands and retailers to eliminate forced child labour in the cotton industry.

Jurewicz writes of the growing consumer demand for transparency:

Having buy-in throughout the entire global value chain, where all of the dots are connected, is essential. The time of transparency has come. Consumers and legislation are demanding it.

Consumers are demanding to know more about the goods they are purchasing and, thankfully, new technologies are being adopted to give this information to them right at the point of purchase.

US legislation is also starting to demand more transparency.

Read more here.