Making progress: Tackling gender-based violence

Today Fair Wear Foundation launches a new publication charting the progress on tackling gender-based violence in the garment industry.

From the submission of a draft law on the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace in Bangladesh to participatory research on gender-based violence in Vietnamese garment factories: these and other examples are compiled in the new publication, Gender Forum: One Year Later.

FWF and its partners have had a busy year implementing country-specific action plans to prevent and address sexual harassment and gender-based violence in the garment industry. The action plans were formulated one year ago at the Gender Forum 2017 in Vietnam (view photo gallery). The event was the first of its kind in Asia. Over the course of three days, participants gained knowledge and shared their experiences with gender-based violence in the world of work. ‘Working together’ was a principal theme. While there are many underlying causes of violence and harassment in the workplace, the Gender Forum’s goal was to not only discuss its reality, but to create specific action plans. The plans and their results have been compiled into the publication.

The Forum was organised by FWF, in collaboration with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organisation (ITCILO) and Dutch trade unions CNV Internationaal and Mondiaal FNV.  Participants hailed from six garment producing countries—Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam—representing non-governmental organisations, trade unions, private sector companies and government.

Download the publication here to learn more about tackling gender-based violence in the garment industry.