International Commission for Labor Rights

International Commission
for Labor Rights

Critical assistance for working people and trade unions worldwide

Links to Other Organizations

Organizations

The Communication Initiative is a partnership of development organisations seeking to improve strategic communication thinking on international development issues. Their work focuses on issues such as health, education, gender, children's rights, and poverty eradication.

Backbone Campaign is a coalition of grassroots organizations empowering citizens to nominate, comment on, and rate progressive leaders to serve as a virtual Progressive Parallel Administration.

SOMO, or the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, is a Dutch research and advisory bureau that, since 1973, has been investigating the consequences of corporate policies of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and the consequences of the internationalisation of business for developing countries in particular.

Women Working Worldwide is a UK based organisation which supports the struggles of women workers in the global economy through information exchange and international networking.

Transnationals Information Exchange-Asia (TIE-Asia) is a non profit, independent, regional labour network. TIE-Asia began in 1992 in response to the growing number of mostly women workers, who are largely unorganised and precariously employed in the export orientated textile, garment and related industries, within and outside of the zones, which are dominated by suppliers to transnational corporations (TNCs).

IRENE has been stimulating and facilitating the exchange of information on labour issues since 1981 and has contacts, resources and a European programme of work which covers current international labour issues.

Corporate Ethics and Governance Watchdog is an organization that files reports on the conduct of businesses from around the world. Due to globalization and the profit-driven interests of multinational corporations, local laws and communities are being ignored. Corporate Ethics and Governance Watchdog files reports on these companies relating to issues of ethics and governance.

The Solidarity Center is a non-profit organization that assists workers around the world who are struggling to build democratic and independent trade unions. As an allied organization of the AFL-CIO, we work with unions and community groups worldwide to achieve equitable, sustainable, democratic development and to help men and women everywhere stand up for their rights and improve their living and working standards.

US/LEAP (formerly the U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project) is an independent non-profit organization that supports economic justice and basic rights for workers in Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico. US/LEAP focuses especially on the struggles of those workers who are employed directly or indirectly by U.S. companies such as Starbucks (coffee), Chiquita (bananas), and Phillips-Van Heusen (clothing).

Business and Human Rights: a resource website. The purpose of this website is to provide easy access (through links) to a wide range of materials on the subject. The site is maintained by Christopher Avery, an international lawyer working independently on business/human rights issues.

Thai Labour Campaignhas four goals:

Bring Thai workers into solidarity with international workers
Help workers to win living wages and improved labour rights
Pressure the government for meaningful labour protection standards and enforcement of those standards

Human Rights for Workers focuses on how globalization affects working men and women and on how it creates the need to incorporate the human rights of workers into global rules at the national, regional, and international levels through governmental, quasi-governmental, private business, labor union, and other non-governmental channels.

International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation 216 Trade Unions in 106 countries with a combined membership of over 10 million workers bound together in solidarity.

Fair wear Australia Stopping exploitation of home based outworkers. In Australia and other countries around the world women and their families work at sewing machines to produce the clothes that are sold in our shops and markets.

The Multinational Monitor is published monthly except bimonthly in January/February and July/August by Essential Information, Inc. The Multinational Monitor tracks corporate activity, especially in the Third World, focusing on the export of hazardous substances, worker health and safety, labor union issues and the environment.

No Sweat is an activist, campaigning organisation, fighting sweatshop bosses, in solidarity with workers, worldwide.

HomeNet is representing, organising and supporting homebased workers around the world to improve their working and living conditions.

Asia Monitor Resource Center(AMRC) is an independent non-government organization (NGO) which focuses on Asian labour concerns.

Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee. Since its birth, CIC has been deciding to stand with workers. We do not attempt to become a leader of workers, but rather to struggle with workers and to organize them to fight for their own rights. We strongly believe that workers' desperate struggle is the only way to change their poor situations. CIC is an enabler only.

China Labour Bulletin seeks to promote independent trade unionism and provide information on the activities of the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions, as well as attempts by workers to organise outside it.

United Students Against Sweatshops is fighting to end the use of such sweatshop labor.

International Organizations

ILO (International Labor Organization) is a UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights.

UN (United Nations) is an international body of over 180 member countries chartered to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights, and be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.

UNICEF is mandated by the UN General Assembly to advocate for the protection of children's rights, to help meet basic needs and to expand opportunities to reach their full potential.

Latin America

The Colombia Observatory monitors human rights, environment, democracy, equitable development, and the struggle for peace in Colombia.

Latin America Working Group is a coalition of organizations striving for U.S. policies that promote peace, justice and sustainable development in the region.

Resource Center of the Americas informs, educates and organizes to promote human rights, democratic participation, economic justice and cross-cultural understanding in the context of globalization in the Americas.

US Office on Colombia seeks to educate U.S. policymakers, the media and public about the impact of U.S. policy on Colombia. By supporting Colombian civil society initiatives and broadening knowledge, understanding and debate it aims to assist in the development of policy solutions.

Washington Office on Latin America is a nonprofit policy, research and advocacy organization working to advance democracy, human rights and social justice in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Policy Organizations that Advocate for Workers

Development Gap works to ensure that the knowledge, priorities and efforts of South inform decisions made in the North about their economies and the environments in which they live.

EarthRights International is a group of activists, organizers, and lawyers working to combine the power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment.

Open Society Institute is part of the Soros foundations network, OSI initiatives aim to build free and open societies by strengthening civil society and promoting economic reform, education, human rights, legal reform, public health, and arts and culture.

Click here for the latest Open Society Newsletter.

Public Citizens' Global Trade Watch was created in 1993 to promote government and corporate accountability in the international agreements shaping the current version of globalization.
Stop Exxon Mobil is a broad association of rights groups working to influence ExxonMobil's behavior in the human rights, environment, governance and community relations areas.

Trade Unions

AFL-CIO is the voluntary federation of America's unions, representing more than 13 million working women and men nationwide.

Canadian Labour Congress is the Canadian federation of trade unions, representing the majority of national and international unions in Canada.

Communications Workers of America - the largest telecommunications union in North America, represents 630,000 workers, including 500,000 building the information highway.

International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the most diverse union in the U.S., representing over 1.5 million members in a wide variety of occupations.

ICFTU (International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) is a Confederation of national trade union centres, each of which links together the trade unions of that particular country.

IUF (International Union of Food Workers) represents workers employed in agriculture, food manufacture and preparation, tobacco processing, hotels, restaurants, catering and tourism.

PSI (Public Service International) is an international trade union federation for public sector unions, representing more than 20 million public sector workers worldwide.

UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America) is a national union representing some 35,000 workers in manufacturing, public and private non-profit sector jobs.

Labor Rights Advocates

Campaign for Labor Rights mobilizes grassroots activism throughout the United States for campaigns to end sweatshop abuses and child labor.

Child Labor Coalition is a national network providing a forum on child labor issues and developing outreach to combat child labor and promote progressive initiatives and legislation.

China Labor Watch is devoted to improving Chinese workers' working and living conditions, defending their rights, and upholding international labor and human rights standards
Clean Clothes Campaign is an international network, based in the Netherlands, with the goal of improving working conditions in the garment industry worldwide.

Corporate Watch investigates and exposes corporate violations of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption around the world. We work to foster global justice, independent media activism and democratic control over corporations.

EcoFlora is a Canadian flower retailer serving the Toronto area selling flowers certified by Sierra Eco, Flower Label Program and Max Havelaar, in fair trade baskets and other fair trade containers.

Global Exchange is a non-profit research, education, and action center dedicated to increasing global awareness in the US while building international partnerships around the world.

Global March Against Child Labor is a program of local and national demonstrations, events and advocacy campaigns, seeking to mobilize efforts to protect the rights of all children.

Grupo de Monitoreo Independiente de El Salvador (GMIES) verifies company compliance with the basic norms of labor and human rights in El Salvador.

India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) informs the public about how social, economic and political developments in the West influence the daily lives of millions of Indians.

International Initiative to End Child Labor is a US-based organization that provides education, training, technical assistance, research, resources, and evaluation services to public and private institutions and agencies and NGOs that seek to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the United States and around the world.

Maquila Solidarity Network is a network promoting solidarity with groups in Central America and Asia organizing in maquiladora factories and export processing zones to improve conditions.

National Labor Committee is a human rights advocacy group, dedicated to educating and engaging the U.S. public on human and labor rights abuses by corporations.

National Workrights Institute is a non-profit organization that works to improve the legal protection of human rights in the workplace in the U.S.

No Sweat Apparel is a 100% union-made sweatshop alternative providing competitive products to Western consumers while paying union shops and coops around the world a living wage. Also aims to provide information for consumers about the happenings of the garment industry.

RUGMARK is a monitoring and labeling program that recruits carpet producers and importers to make or sell carpets that are free of illegal child labor, and educates former carpet children.

Sweatshop Watch is a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to eliminating sweatshop conditions in the global garment industry.

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