The German Government "Shelved" Regulation Of The Supply Chain.

The German government has been accused of trying to cut down on the extent to which enterprises can identify and respond to possible human rights violations in the supply chain.

To (2018) the parties of the German Coalition Government agreed that if Germany's large enterprises were not willing to fully solve the supply chain and other human rights violations before 2020, the government would consider making laws and requiring enterprises to cooperate. Enterprises must identify, mitigate and explain the possible impact of corporate activities on human rights.

However, according to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), any proposed law on the supply chain will largely depend on the extent to which the government fully monitors corporate performance.

The HRW Organization says the proposed monitoring system is hampered by differences of opinion among government officials.

"The self-report questionnaire on the topic has been sent to more than 500 German companies," HRW said. They could be answered from May to July. But the process has been shelved because of the German Ministry of Eco. Nomic Affairs and Energy) disagrees with the plan, so the questionnaire has not yet been sent out.

"The Ministry of economic affairs is promoting a proposal that when the enterprise fails to perform its duties, the proposal will make it easy for enterprises to be classified as international human rights standards," said Juliane Kippenberg, deputy director of the human rights watch, who is responsible for the rights of children.

"There is a risk that the regulatory system will be abused as a political tool, which is to avoid stricter government measures in enterprises and, above all, the urgent need to adopt laws applicable to the supply chain".

HRW organization said: "supply chain refers to product production involves all steps must be composed of raw materials from the acquisition, transportation, manufacturing and retail - the Ministry of economic affairs is proposing a monitoring system, allowing the government to classify more companies to meet the government's responsibility for purchasing standards."

It points out that there are more than two categories - compliance and non compliance - there should be four categories, including compliance plan and partial compliance.

German national business and human rights action plan 2016 (Natio) Nal Action Plan on Business and Human Rights) envisages a "strong" monitoring system designed to assess company performance, which is far less than the proposal currently formulated by the Ministry of economic affairs.

According to the International Labour Organization (Internatio) Nal Labour Organization (ILO), more than 450 million people worldwide are engaged in supply chain related work. The HRW organization records the abuse of labour in the global garment supply chain, including excessive or forced overtime work, denial of employees' leave, pregnancy discrimination and attacks on trade union members.

HRW organization claims: "although many German garment companies have joined the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles initiative, many companies still do not adopt the basic human rights due diligence code, such as supply chain transparency".

In addition, the changes in purchasing practices of garment enterprises and the introduction of quality remedies for workers in the global supply factories are crucial to mitigating the abuse of labour force in the global supply chain.

Kippenberg said: "the German government should point out that respecting the international human rights norms both at home and abroad and the economic interests of Germany are compatible. The support of good practices can promote economic growth in Germany".