December 19, 2014

Members of the Central American delegation at the CCC Forum

On November 18-21, members of the MSN team travelled to Hong Kong to participate in the Clean Clothes Campaign's 2014 Global Forum on Strategies and Structure for the international labour rights movement.

The Forum, co-sponsored with Hong Kong-based Globalization Monitor, brought together over 200 delegates from trade union, labour and human rights, and women's organizations from Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, North America, and the UK to discuss and debate possible new strategies to overcome systemic barriers to workers' rights in global supply chains.

MSN facilitated the participation in the Forum of a delegation from women's and trade union organizations from Central America.

Organized around three core labour rights themes - poverty wages, precarious employment, and worker safety - the Forum profiled and drew lessons from recent ground-breaking campaigns and initiatives, including the Asian Floor Wage Campaign, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, and the Indonesian Protocol on Freedom of Association. A special session on workers' rights in China highlighted some of the innovative work being carried out in China to increase the space for worker organizing and seek remedies when workers' rights are violated.

The ambitious aim of the Forum was to gain agreement among the members of the CCC global network on a common strategic framework for priority campaigns in the coming four-year period, and to gain consensus on a proposal for a new CCC decision-making structure designed to incorporate affiliated organizations and regional networks in the Global South into the CCC governance structure.

After four days of intense discussion and debate, participants left the Forum both exhausted and exhilarated. Working Groups on each of the theme areas and an interim Transition Steering Board will be working over the next months to finalize documents and program plans to share with the broader network.

Check out the CCC website for updates over the next months.

Middle photo: Central American show their international solidarity

Bottom photo: Central American delegation leaves Hong Kong after an intense week of meetings