Fair Wear's latest HRDD Policy
In the increasingly complex garment, textile and footwear industry, business decisions fundamentally affect those who are employed in global supply chains. As such, Fair Wear expects its member brands to respect human rights and to carry out human rights due diligence (HRDD). Due diligence is the process through which companies can identify, prevent, mitigate and address their actual and potential adverse impacts throughout their supply chains.
This policy is aligned with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human rights (UNGP, 2011), the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2011), the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct (2018), the OECD Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector (OECD 2018) and the ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.
This policy outlines the responsibility of Fair Wear member brands in relation to HRDD. Given that the establishment of Fair Wear pre-dates the above-mentioned international guidelines and guidance, this policy brings Fair Wear membership requirements, as well as its guidance and tools, in line with HRDD expectations. It offers a comprehensive approach that will help companies to better manage and mitigate human rights-related risks in their supply chains. For more than two decades, the industry has been compliance focused, which has meant an over reliance on audits and outsourcing assessments. Since its founding, Fair Wear has always taken a shared responsibility approach that strengthens the relationship between member brands and their suppliers, production locations, and enables member brands to work on meaningful improvements in their supply chains by:
- Offering multi-stakeholder driven and diverse risk assessment information that is needed for companies to make informed decisions;
- Taking a more data-driven approach with innovative data collection and data analysis;
- Carrying out reviews and assessments of outcomes and progress – both on factory and brand level;
- Facilitating sector collaboration and stakeholder engagement with suppliers, production locations, business associations, trade unions, government agencies, civil society organisations, experts and other multi-stakeholder initiatives.
This policy also provides insights on how Fair Wear tools, resources and programmes can facilitate companies to meet their responsibilities for HRDD and potential legal requirements. These are listed in the Fair Wear Facilitation paragraphs at the end of each chapter. While HRDD is always a brand’s responsibility, Fair Wear’s role is to facilitate technical support, on-the-ground assessments and guidance, and meaningful stakeholder engagement. Moreover, Fair Wear assess member brands for their implementation of HRDD in the Brand Performance Check.
Where a member brands’ HRDD responsibility goes beyond the current scope of Fair Wear, we aim to seek collaborations to align approaches which will facilitate member brands to address their responsibilities in other parts of their supply chains. Fair Wear wants to be a driving force to create industry alignment and consensus on responsible purchasing practices across businesses in Europe and seeks to harmonise guidelines rather than creating competing or duplicative expectations. This policy can therefore be used alongside the OECD guidelines and guidance as well as other relevant RBC standards.
This policy went into effect as of 1 January 2024.
Read the full policy here.