Promoting the Right to Freedom of Association in Global Fashion Supply Chains through Business and Human Rights Laws in Europe

The global garment sector has exploded in value over the last half-century and yet its utility in maximising the welfare of the garment workers at the centre of it, has not fully been realised. Global supply chains have been fashioned to exploit the cheap labour of workers in the Global South, which has seen brands increasingly demarcate themselves from the human and environmental costs of their enterprise. This project seeks to determine how states in the Global North can play a role in augmenting the accountability of global fashion brands for human rights abuses in 'fast fashion' supply chains. It aims to offer an insight into whether and how human rights due diligence laws in the Global North may offer a new viable form of supply chain governance with the potential to bring about material improvements to working conditions for workers, by promoting the right to freedom of association