2026 OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector

Side Session: When Workers Are Silenced for Exercising Their Rights: Countering Criminalisation and Advancing Corporate Responsibility for Remedy

Monday, February 9, 2026

3:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Central European Time (90 mins)

9:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. Cambodia Time
8:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Myanmar Time
8:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. Bangladesh Time
7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Indian Standard Time
9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time

English, with simultaneous translation in Bangla, Burmese and Khmer

Session description

Across Asia’s garment and footwear sector, workers who exercise their fundamental rights are criminalized as a form of retaliation and repression. This session examines how the use of Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation (SLAPP) tactics and criminal complaints creates a structural barrier to the enabling right of workers to organize. 

From false criminal cases against workers in Bangladesh and Thailand to the imprisonment of unionists in Myanmar and Cambodia, women union leaders will detail how shrinking civic space, ineffective human rights due diligence, and weak corporate responses to violations leave workers dangerously unprotected. 

Drawing on recent WRC case studies, panelists will illustrate how successful interventions to secure remedy can strategically raise the standard of corporate responsibility and counter the chilling effect of criminalization. The session will explore what these cases reveal about gaps in identifying risk in repressive contexts and consider best practices for protecting freedom of association.

Panelists

Thulsi Narayanasamy, Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), United Kingdom
Daw Myo Myo Aye, Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar (STUM), Myanmar
Nazma Akter,  Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation (SGSF), Bangladesh
Yang Sophorn, Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), Cambodia
Nanchanok Wongsamuth (Namwan), Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), Thailand