Post by account_disabled on Mar 14, 2024 15:31:43 GMT 9.5
Human rights abuses—such as child labor, forced labor, poor working conditions, gender inequality, and the violation of Indigenous land rights—are persistent risks in many agricultural and forestry supply chains. The Rainforest Alliance works to protect and promote the human rights of farmers, farmworkers, and forest communities by implementing targeted strategies in both our certification program and our landscapes initiatives. But of course, no single organization can overcome a challenge as complex and entrenched as human rights abuses. That’s why we also bring together a global alliance of rural communities, companies, governments, civil society organizations, and individuals around the world to advance responsible business practices and government policies. Everyone must do their part. Sign up for useful tips to green your life and protect our planet. Email(Required) Email Address GDPR Consent Yes, I agree to receive occasional emails from the Rainforest Alliance. Here are some human rights challenges that the Rainforest Alliance addresses through our work. Child labor 160 million children worldwide are engaged in child labor—that’s more than the combined populations of the United Kingdom and Germany. The majority of these children—70 percent—work in the agricultural sector.
Child labor is not tolerated on Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. That said, our experience has shown that the threat of instant decertification often drives abuses underground, making them much harder to detect. That’s why the Rainforest Alliance Certification Program takes an “assess-and-address” approach that focuses on prevention, engagement, improvement, and incentivizing farm owners and management to tackle child labor. Farmers and farm groups in our certification program are required to conduct risk assessments; to implement mitigation activities for any risks they identify; and to monitor how effective BYB Directory these mitigation activities are. They must also identify cases of child labor and remediate them, and they have access to trainings on how to do so. This assess-and-address approach aligns with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Tackling child labor in our certification program is just one of the pathways we’re taking towards child labor-free farms. Raising community awareness, working with families, teachers, government agencies, and community institutions are among our other tools.
Investing in women, influencing government action and partnering with companies are also important to stopping child labor. Forced labor Farm workers, especially migrant workers and people from historically marginalized social groups, are particularly vulnerable to forced labor. The hallmarks of forced labor include unpaid or extremely low-paid work, changes to working conditions without the worker’s consent, confinement in the workplace, and debt bondage. As with child labor, forced labor is best tackled with an assess-and-address approach, since an outright ban, punishable by immediate decertification, often leads farm owners to hide incidents of forced labor instead of remediating them. Often the most effective approach to give the farm an opportunity to provide remedy to the victim and improve its prevention and mitigation systems. It should be said when assess-and-address yields no improvement, or when the human rights abuses (whether they be forced labor or other abuses) are severe, the Rainforest Alliance suspends or decertifies the farm or farm group in question. In addition to the measures taken through our certification program, the Rainforest Alliance works with local actors to employ context-specific methods of combating forced labor.
Child labor is not tolerated on Rainforest Alliance Certified farms. That said, our experience has shown that the threat of instant decertification often drives abuses underground, making them much harder to detect. That’s why the Rainforest Alliance Certification Program takes an “assess-and-address” approach that focuses on prevention, engagement, improvement, and incentivizing farm owners and management to tackle child labor. Farmers and farm groups in our certification program are required to conduct risk assessments; to implement mitigation activities for any risks they identify; and to monitor how effective BYB Directory these mitigation activities are. They must also identify cases of child labor and remediate them, and they have access to trainings on how to do so. This assess-and-address approach aligns with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Tackling child labor in our certification program is just one of the pathways we’re taking towards child labor-free farms. Raising community awareness, working with families, teachers, government agencies, and community institutions are among our other tools.
Investing in women, influencing government action and partnering with companies are also important to stopping child labor. Forced labor Farm workers, especially migrant workers and people from historically marginalized social groups, are particularly vulnerable to forced labor. The hallmarks of forced labor include unpaid or extremely low-paid work, changes to working conditions without the worker’s consent, confinement in the workplace, and debt bondage. As with child labor, forced labor is best tackled with an assess-and-address approach, since an outright ban, punishable by immediate decertification, often leads farm owners to hide incidents of forced labor instead of remediating them. Often the most effective approach to give the farm an opportunity to provide remedy to the victim and improve its prevention and mitigation systems. It should be said when assess-and-address yields no improvement, or when the human rights abuses (whether they be forced labor or other abuses) are severe, the Rainforest Alliance suspends or decertifies the farm or farm group in question. In addition to the measures taken through our certification program, the Rainforest Alliance works with local actors to employ context-specific methods of combating forced labor.