Media Highlights

Solidarity Center’s director of Bangladesh programs, Alonzo Suson, comments on union organizing efforts following the Rana Plaza collapse.

In a joint statement to mark Human Rights Day, several human rights organizations, including the Solidarity Center, said Zimbabwe should respect and protect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, participation in political and governmental affairs, and personal integrity.

AWID’s 5th online tribute to Women Human Rights Defenders who have died in recent years commemorates 60 feminists and activists. A 2016 report by AWID and the Solidarity Center shows that the rising power of corporate interests is an urgent challenge to defenders of human rights and justice.

Shawna Bader-Blau, Solidarity Center Executive Director, shares her insights on the significance of the fourth report of the UN special rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, presented to the UN General Assembly on 21 October 2016.

A healthy, more equitable economy is key to any society emerging from a war as bitter as Sri Lanka experienced, and is crucial to mitigating future conflict. A critical element to address discord is equal treatment under the law. Yet there is rising concern that, across a broad range of issues, this equality has yet to be realized.

Corrupt corporate practices that allow multinational companies to reap billions at the expense of impoverished communities undermine global goals for development, mutually beneficial trade, creation of inclusive economies, shared prosperity and the very foundations of U.S. policies like AGOA, writes the Solidarity Center’s Shawna Bader-Blau and ActionAid USA’s Marie Clarke.

A Solidarity Center website article was republished.

Jamie Davis, Solidarity Center Myanmar country director, discusses how unions, starting from scratch after decades of military rule, are organizing workers and making gains. “We need to make sure workers in Myanmar, as in any country, including the United States, have a voice.”

“Over the past three years, the Bangladesh government has approved fewer and fewer union registration applications. Through their unions, workers are able to speak out freely about safety and health concerns at their worksites and prevent horrible tragedies like Rana Plaza. Limiting workers from forming unions puts workers’ safety at risk,” said Tim Ryan, Solidarity Center director of Asia programs.

Imani Countess, the Africa regional program director for the Solidarity Center, said that workers should receive the rewards of their work—decent pay, benefits, safe working conditions, respect and fair treatment. “So when in 2013 we heard that over 100 women in Hwange peacefully protested—demanding that wages owed to their men be paid—and were met by police violence resulting in injuries for several, we were shocked.”