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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday urged the global community to invest in social justice in an effort to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies all over the world.
"We can achieve lasting peace and sustainable development on the foundation of social justice. We must invest in social justice in our efforts to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies worldwide," she said, addressing the Plenary of "World of Work Summit 2023" at Palais de Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, reports BSS.
Sheikh Hasina said that the summit, with the launch of the Global Coalition, has created an opportunity to place social justice at the heart of all international development agenda, including SDGs.
In this context, she made five suggestions from Bangladesh's viewpoint.
In her first point, the Premier said that it would be advisable to develop the Coalition as a consultative or advocacy platform rather than as a norm-setting or negotiating forum.
Secondly, the Coalition must guard against weaponising "social justice" by one international quarter against the other in the current geopolitical context.
Thirdly, the Coalition should make sure that instead of being used as a protectionist tool, social justice should be widely promoted under a rules-based multilateral trading system.
Fourthly, the Coalition needs to ensure broad-based support from ILO's own constituents with a view to enlisting the International Financial Institutions for the purpose of promoting decent work and productive employment.
Finally, the Coalition should give attention to making our youth champion social justice.
Sheikh Hasina said, "We need to develop a new Social Contract for our world to address the multidimensional challenges of the present century."
Mentioning that Bangladesh is a signatory to eight of the 10 fundamental ILO Conventions on labour rights protection, she said, "We are actively considering ratification of the two new fundamental ILO Conventions concerning occupational health and safety."
The prime minister said it is a matter of great regret that certain developed countries that are otherwise vocal about labour rights have not themselves ratified most of the fundamental ILO Conventions. For instance, a major industrialized country has signed only two fundamental Conventions, she added.
Bangladesh has recently signed ILO Convention 138 on determining the minimum age for child labour.
To this end, the premier said her government has declared eight hazardous sectors to be free of child labour.
Besides, in fiscal year 2023-24, a programme is underway to rehabilitate 100,000 children engaged in hazardous work by providing them with non-formal and technical education, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said that they have followed ILO's recommendations to amend the Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006 twice in 2013 and 2018.
The safety and working environment of all ready-made garment factories in Bangladesh have been assessed and the export-oriented ones have been remedied accordingly, she added.
Mentioning that more than half of the world's top 100 environment-friendly garment factories are now located in Bangladesh, she said, "To take forward this achievement, we've formulated a 'Green Factory Award Policy', and I hope our international buyers would encourage such eco-friendly initiatives by paying fair prices for the products."
"It was our government that increased the minimum wage for garment workers from Tk 1,600 to Tk 8,000."
Hasina also highlighted different initiatives taken by her government for labourers such as online trade union registration. The rate of trade union registration has increased from 60 percent in 2013 to 90 percent in 2022, the number of trade unions in the garments sector has increased nine-fold in the last nine years, she added.
In addition, workers and employers are being regularly trained on the trade union registration process and two separate toll-free help-lines have been launched for Export Processing Zones (EPZ) and non-EPZ areas, she said.
Sheikh Hasina said that her government has made a commitment to build a "Smart Bangladesh" in line with its Vision-2041.
The government has set a target to increase enrollment rate in technical education from the current 17 percent to 30 percent by 2030.
"We are setting up specialized institutes for ocean research, aeronautics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and frontier technology to prepare our youth for the Fourth Industrial Revolution."
She said that they have established the "Expatriates' Welfare Bank" to help reduce overall migration costs and provide easy loans to migrant workers. "Bangladesh continues to play a leading role in ensuring safe, orderly and regular migration."
The Premier also urged the international community to pay heed to climate change impacts on human mobility and overall work environment.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
