The Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation (LPN) is a leading non-government organisation working in Thailand to address issues of human trafficking, migrant rights, and migrant child safeguarding. The organisation has its base in the coastal province of Samut Sakhon, 45 kilometers southwest of Bangkok. LPN has worked with communities in Samut Sakhon and surrounding provinces for over a decade. Priority issues include migrant child issues, child trafficking, forced and bonded child labour and illegal employment of children. To address these issues LPN advocates for the provision of education, fair and equal rights for migrant child and their families, and access to appropriate healthcare and information. Given the acute vulnerability of migrant children in Samut Sakhon, and Thailand as a whole, LPN channels significant amounts of time and resources into promoting migrant child issues and providing care, assistance, and safeguarding services to past, current, and potential victims of exploitation and rights violations.
Type: Research
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) is a business-focused NGO working to create information tools and methodology to allow companies to directly engage with seafood suppliers. SFP operates through two main principles: information and improvement. SFP has created a database called FishSource of fisheries and aquaculture areas which contains assessments of sustainability and improvement needs. SFP helps seafood companies engage with fisheries by creating FIPs and AIPs to work together with multi-stakeholder groups for the creation and implementation of improvement plans. SFP is also collaborating with Seafish and Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program to create a risk assessment tool for social responsibility in fisheries.
Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF)
EJF conducts detailed field-based investigations, coupled with extensive background research to inform high-level advocacy directed at policy makers and key industry stake-holders. In some circumstances, EJF will provide specialist training and support, both to Government and civil society. We work in collaboration with a diverse range of stake-holders.
Solidarity Center
The Solidarity Center is the largest U.S.-based international worker rights organization helping workers attain safe and healthy workplaces, family-supporting wages, dignity on the job and greater equity at work and in their community. Allied with the AFL-CIO and working with 400-plus labor unions, NGOs, human rights defenders and community groups, the Solidarity Center assists workers across the globe as, together, they fight discrimination, exploitation and the systems that entrench poverty. It supports programs‰ÛÓe.g., trainings, education campaigns, legal aid, research and transparency initiative‰ÛÓthat help workers understand and exercise their rights, improve their working and living conditions, and build independent unions, including in the fishing and seafood sectors. The Solidarity Center has issued several publications on the fish and seafood sector, including: The Plight of Shrimp-Processing Workers of Southwestern Bangladesh (2012), Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Human Trafficking and Exploitation of Migrant Fishing Boat Workers in Thailand (2009), and The True Cost of Shrimp (2008).
Conservation International
For over 30 years, CI has been protecting nature for the benefit of global humanity. We do this through science, policy and partnerships with countries, communities and companies. Our oceans program is committed to sustainable production, ensuring that seafood is environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. We have invested significant effort in functioning as a catalyst and convener on social responsibility, driving alignment among organizations that work with businesses, governments, and civil society groups involved in the seafood sector on a shared definition and collective action plan for progress: and developing a strong and diverse community of practice, comprised of environmental and social nonprofit organizations, academic researchers, consultants, and other key experts.
Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB)
IHRB are an international think tank who work to improve and support business and government engagement with international standards relating to business and human rights. We have a dedicated programme on Migrant Workers and have produced a number of tools for business including the Dhaka Principles for Migration With Dignity which are used and referenced by many stakeholders globally. We have a particular focus on Responsible Recruitment and in particular the payment by many migrant workers of recruitment fees to secure employment abroad – these payments often leaving them in situations of debt bondage (an indicator of forced labour). Instead we promote The Employer Pays Principle – No worker should pay for a job. The costs of recruitment should be borne not by the worker but by the employer. IHRB also have experience across a range of other issues affecting workers and businesses.
Liberty Shared
Liberty Shared aims to prevent human trafficking through: strategic research: capture and application of information and data: legal advocacy: technological interventions: and strategic collaborations with NGOs, corporations, and financial institutions. Liberty Shared is using its systemic approach to combat slavery and environmental crimes in the fishing industry. This is done by: using research of industry structure and dynamics and the support of the financial sector: sharing key counter-trafficking data and best practices with strategic partners and industry, and channeling intelligence on slavery activities with the corporate community: championing legal and regulatory developments that obligate industry responses to receipt of new information, and improving the understanding of victim identification and protection: creating slavery education and awareness programs to enact change in all sectors of society: collaboration with database providers in the financial sector to share information relevant to anti-money laundering risk and compliance.
Fortify Rights
Fortify Rights supports human rights defenders and affected communities by investigating human rights violations and engaging people with power on solutions. Our work is focused on bringing laws and practices in line with human rights standards to ensure human rights for all.
Winrock International
In Bangladesh, Winrock works with civil society organizations to build their capacity to raise awareness and advocate for addressing the health risks of fish-drying factories. Winrock also works with CSOs to identify and promote alternative livelihoods and opportunities for vulnerable families and children to reduce the prevalence of child labor in the dried fish sector. In Cambodia, Winrock raises awareness on safe migration and improves livelihoods through resources and training to those who might otherwise be lured into servitude on fishing vessels. Winrock and its partners also work to ensure survivors of trafficking from fishing vessels receive holistic care, reintegration services, and competent legal assistance as they pursue compensation. In Thailand, Winrock has recently partnered with a multi-national corporation to reduce and prevent human trafficking in the Thai fishing sector through: better connectivity at sea, which will enable emergency response and workers‰Ûª voice; development of response protocols that are expected to be implemented throughout the industry, as well as promoting ethical labor recruitment practices. Finally, Winrock is engaging the Thai government in order to improve victim identification, assistance and strengthen complaint mechanisms.
FishWise
FishWise promotes the health and recovery of ocean ecosystems by providing innovative market-based tools to the seafood industry, supporting sustainability through environmentally and socially responsible business practices. For more than fifteen years, FishWise has worked closely with the seafood industry to foster leadership in sustainability. We believe that the seafood industry not only has serious impacts on the health of oceans and the welfare of its workers, but also the potential to make an enormous contribution to the health of our planet and its inhabitants. FishWise works by advancing private sector leadership, building multi-stakeholder collaboration, and producing research and knowledge. ADVANCING PRIVATE SECTOR LEADERSHIP: FishWise partners with the seafood industry to achieve some of the most ambitious responsible seafood commitments. Currently this includes partnerships with large national and regional retailers, along with independent grocery stores and mid-supply chain and producer companies. As a growing but still nimble organization, FishWise is selective in the projects it takes on, in order to maximize its capacity and ability to deliver results. BUILDING COLLABORATION AND KNOWLEDGE: FishWise sparks learning and innovation by convening government, industry, and nonprofit organizations to create new strategies for improving traceability and combating human rights abuses in seafood supply chains. We are a go-to resource for best practices, tools, and approaches recommended by diverse experts in the field. With marine and social scientists and data analysts on staff, and through strategic academic affiliations, FishWise translates leading-edge scientific information into pragmatic recommendations for a range of seafood stakeholders.
SCS Global Services
Innovative fishery managers, aquaculture producers, supply chain companies, governments and advocacy groups are leading the global seafood market toward sustainable best practices. SCS Global Services was the first certifier to issue a Marine Stewardship Council certificate in 1999 and performs work focused on social and environmental assessment. We provide a global diversity of clients with consulting and auditing services related to marine capture fisheries (Marine Stewardship Council, Fair Trade USA Capture Fisheries Standard), aquaculture production (Aquaculture Stewardship Council), Chain of Custody and improvement projects. We would be pleased to provide tailored consulting services including risk assessment, second party audits, supply chain mapping, stakeholder engagement and facilitation, or helping you to generate sustainability frameworks, procurement policies or other internal or external reporting tools. Examples of SCS seafood clients and projects can be found here: https://www.scsglobalservices.com/certified-clients/sustainable-seafood-certificates