Publications
Research
A Broken Partnership: How Clothing Brands Exploit Suppliers and Harm Workers –And What Can Be Done About It
Ten years after the Rana Plaza factory collapse, a new report from the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights calls for a reformed collaborative approach to the outsourced manufacturing of apparel—one that does not create unfair economic pressure on factory owners, who all too often respond to such exploitation by reducing wages and benefits for their poor employees.
Cobalt Mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Addressing Root Causes of Human Rights Abuses
Research director Dorothée Baumann-Pauly published a white paper in collaboration with the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights which assesses ASM formalization projects. Her work highlights that the extraction from open pits and the integration of women are key success factors for addressing root causes of mine safety risks and child labor.
Still Struggling: Migrant Construction Workers In Qatar During The Pandemic
Our report shows that foreign laborers in Qatar and throughout the Middle East are denied basic labor protections.
Seeking A ‘Smart-Mix’: Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives and Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence
In our white paper, we delve into the role of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) in defining and implementing industry-specific human rights standards, highlighting their potential to shape meaningful corporate practices with government support.
Purchasing Power: How The U.S. Government Can Use Federal Procurement To Uphold Human Rights
Our report makes a series of recommendations to reform federal procurement from four high-risk sectors to ensure the human and labor rights of workers are protected when they make goods for the U.S. government.
Making Mining Safe and Fair: Artisanal Cobalt Extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
We published a white paper in collaboration with the World Economic Forum which assesses recent approaches to formalizing artisanal and small-scale mining of cobalt. The learnings from the cobalt context in the DRC can help guide companies on how to address human rights issues in their global mineral supply chains and improve working conditions of more than 40 million people in artisanal mining worldwide.
Made In Ethiopia: Challenges In The Garment Industry’S New Frontier
We published a report examining how the global apparel industry operates in Ethiopia. The report features a set of nine recommendations for how the industry and the Ethiopian government, foreign manufacturers, and Western brands can address the human rights challenges created by the lowest wages in the entire global supply chain for clothing.
Five Years After Rana Plaza: The Way Forward
The Center’s report on factory safety in Bangladesh, finds that efforts by Western brands and retailers have resulted in safer factories but thousands of additional facilities still require remediation.
Making Workers Pay: Recruitment Of The Migrant Labor Force In The Gulf Construction Industry
A new study from the Center finds that construction companies operating in the Arabian Gulf are able to recruit millions of low-wage migrant workers without incurring the costs of the recruitment process. Instead, in this highly irregular system, most workers themselves are paying for their own recruitment – and much more – before they depart their home countries.
Beyond The Tip Of The Iceberg: Bangladesh’s Forgotten Apparel Workers
The Center published an interactive map showing Bangladesh’s 7,000 garment factories. This number is almost double prior estimates, shining a light on the scale of sub-contracting in global fashion supply chains. The map and accompanying report, were the result of a year-long study in which the Center systematically examined official records and conducted a survey of almost 500 factories
Business As Usual Is Not An Option: Supply Chains And Sourcing After Rana Plaza.
The collapse of Rana Plaza, which killed over 1,100 workers, revealed the safety risks and poor working conditions endemic in the Bangladeshi garment industry. On the basis of over 100 interviews and two convenings in New York and Dhaka, which brought buyers together with their local suppliers, we identified indirect sourcing as the problem most in need of greater attention.