Eight union leaders jailed for peacefully walking a picket line at NagaWorld Hotel and Casino in Cambodia have been denied pre-trial release, and government officials are now using the COVID-19 pandemic to further interfere with workers’ right to assemble, according...
The Solidarity Center works to ensure all workers, such as Bangladesh garment workers, have access to their legal workplace rights. Credit: Solidarity Center/Balmi Chisim
The Solidarity Center works to ensure that all workers have rights protected under international law and have access to effective legal remedies if those rights are violated.
The Solidarity Center works with workers, unions and other organizations around the world to rewrite the rules so workers can form unions and take collective action to promote their rights and be free from exploitation. The Solidarity Center has assisted workers and unions in countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Guatemala, Myanmar, Thailand and Ukraine to analyze legislation and develop strategies to defeat repressive legislation and promote laws and regulations consistent with international law.
Our work supports novel litigation at the national and regional levels to expand rights to workers and unions. For example, the Solidarity Center has supported constitutional litigation to ensure domestic workers in South Africa have access to the national workers compensation fund, and is working with lawyers in Bangladesh to support workers in challenging the use of false criminal charges to dismiss and silence workers. The Solidarity Center also supports efforts in regional human rights courts to promote the rights of informal economy workers in Africa and to hold governments accountable for anti-union violence in the Americas.
The Solidarity Center also is working to build accountability for multinational firms in global supply chains that remain largely beyond the reach of the law in countries where their suppliers are located and in their home countries. The lack of accountability is a major driver of worker exploitation in supply chains, including wage theft, unsafe workplaces, violence against workers and attacks against unions.
Educating workers on their rights and how to use them in the workplace is also a key component of our work. Through the International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network (ILAW), we are building a legal community and increasing the capacity of lawyers and activists to effectively use domestic, regional and international laws and institutions. The ILAW Network brings together more than 400 lawyers in some 55 countries.
South Africa: Survey Flags Domestic Worker Human Rights Violations, Solutions
“The dignity of people’s very being is at stake,” said IZWI Domestic Worker Alliance’s founder and lead researcher Amy Tekie in opening remarks at a recent webinar focused on a new qualitative survey of human rights violations against live-in domestic workers in South...
Union Leader Elected to Myanmar People’s Council on Eve of Coup Anniversary
As Myanmar’s military junta marks the first year of its overthrow of the country’s democratically elected government February 1, delegates to a national unity assembly seeking to establish civilian control and return the country to democracy elected a five-member...
![When Workers Become Targets: Nigeria](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Nigeria.Cover_.When-Workers-Become-Targets-report.11.2018.jpg)
When Workers Become Targets: Nigeria
"When Workers Become Targets: Nigeria," is a collection of real-life experiences of workers, particularly women, during the Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State, North-East Nigeria, and how unions whose members suffered the greatest toll played a crucial role in the...
![Annual Report 2017](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Annual-Report-cover.2018.png)
Annual Report 2017
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![Annual Report 2016](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Annual-Report-2017-cover.jpg)
Annual Report 2016
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![Rebuilding Nepal: Creating Good Jobs Amid Reconstruction and Migration](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Nepal-Earthquake-report-cov.jpg)
Rebuilding Nepal: Creating Good Jobs Amid Reconstruction and Migration
This JustJobs and Solidarity Center report asserts that post-earthquake Nepal is at a unique moment when it can leverage the reconstruction process to protect worker rights and ensure that migration out of the country for work is a choice, not a necessity....
![Annual Report 2015](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Annual-Report.2015.cover_.jpg)
Annual Report 2015
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![Workers in Post-Civil War Jaffna](https://www.solidaritycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Sri-Lanka.Jaffna-report.7.16.jpg)
Workers in Post-Civil War Jaffna
Although Sri Lanka's labor code sets the minimum wage, the maximum number of work hours per day and work days per week, and establishes rules around overtime and benefits, many employers in Jaffna, the country’s northern province, are flaunting the statutes. The vast...