Supply chain regulation in the garment industry. International and national multi-stakeholder initiatives for Doing Business Right

Read the report on “Can better regulation support sustainability in the garment industry?”

The T.M.C. Asser Instituut cordially invites you to a round table on sustainable garment with the following programme: 

14:30 - 14:45 Opening - Antoine Duval (Asser Institute)

14:45 - 15:15  Keynote presentation

‘Corporate due diligence in the garment industry. Which role for the European Union?’ -  Judith Sargentini, Member of the European Parliament (GroenLinks)

15:15 – 16:30 Panel Roundtable - Enrico Partiti (Moderator, Asser Institute)

•        Mariëlle van der Linden (International CSR Unit Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
•        Lodewijk de Waal (Chairman, National Contact Point OECD-guidelines for Multinational Enterprises
•        Roel Nieuwenkamp (Chair OECD Working Party on Responsible Business Conduct)
•        Sibbe Krol (The Sustainable Trade Initiative)
•        Jeroen van Dijken (Vereniging van Grootwinkelbedrijven in Textiel (VGT))

16:30 – 17:00   Q&A
17:00                     Reception

Evolution of the regulatory efforts
The negative impact of what we wear is not always well-known to the consumer. Our clothing consumption has increased over five times since the Nineties. At the same time, the business models of certain fashion brands are too often dependent on widespread human rights and labour rights violations to be profitable, cheap, and fast. The 2013 tragedy of Rana Plaza, where more than 1100 garment workers died, gives us just a small hint of the true costs of our clothes and footwear. Efforts by governments to tame the negative effects of transnational supply chains have proven difficult due to the extreme delocalisation of production and the difficulty to even be aware of a company’s last tier of suppliers in certain developing countries.

This Asser roundtable brings together key practitioners from international organisations, EU institutions, the Dutch government, non-governmental organisations, and the business world. The speakers will discuss the qualitative evolution of the regulatory efforts to curtail human rights violations in global supply chain by means of the establishment of clear, precise and enforceable commitments for the business community. They will highlight social, economical, and legal challenges and opportunities lying ahead for public and private partnerships in the transnational regulation of business conduct.

Time: 14.30 – 17.00 hrs, followed by a reception
Registration: Registration for this event is mandatory, as a limited number of seats are available. Please register via the register button above. For questions please contact conferencemanager@asser.nl.

More information
The T.M.C. Asser Instituut carries out research on developments in international and European law and its potential for serving the cultivation of trust and respect in the global, regional, national and local societies in which the law operates. The round table on sustainable garment is part of the newly established research project of the ASSER Institute on ‘Doing Business Right’, which is part of the broader research strand ‘Advancing Public Interests in International and European Law’.