Highlighting the importance of implementing United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) to ensure workers’ rights in Bangladesh, including those in the readymade garment (RMG) sector, speakers at a multi-stakeholders’ dialogue on “UN Guiding Principles: Due Diligence and Grievance Mechanism”, called upon the multinational companies and buyers to come up with initiatives for ensuring workers’ rights and integrating human rights in business as they profit from the workers’ production.
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The dialogue was jointly organised by ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) and Global Rights Compliance (GRC) in Dhaka recently.
“We want to see Bangladesh as a sustainable developed country, and it is very necessary to ensure workers’ human rights for achieving the goal,” Country Director of ActionAid Bangladesh (AAB) Farah Kabir said, adding, “From the moral standpoint, multinational companies should stand beside the workers to ensure rights as we want to see that rights of everyone are ensured in the country.” The ActionAid Country Director of Bangladesh further added that the Government needs to be more active in ensuring workplace safety, proper wages and other demands of the workers as it can play role more efficiently than that by the private sectors.
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Speaking on the occasion, Scott Martin of the Global Rights Compliance (GRC) maintained, “If the business organisations comply with the guidelines, they will not face any trouble regarding compliance issues within the country or outside the country and human rights violation could be prevented,” adding, “The manufacturers would more be beneficiary if they become aware of the human rights violation from their own ends.”
