An updated law prohibiting forced labour is limited to formal employment relationships. Workers in sectors that are unregulated are not sufficiently protected, nor does the law reach workers who have free movement, but suffer mistreatment.
The clothing industry should work harder to prevent and address gender-based violence in their supply chains. In order to do so, they first need to confront how badly their inspection or social auditing programs fail to protect women.
Our current socio-economic system is built on the exploitation of both people and planet, causing inequality and environmental devastation. To save a world on the brink of ecological and social disaster, calls for greener, more efficient capitalism won’t cut it, writes Zafirah Zein.