As we celebrate Human Rights Day today, and the European Union Forced Labour Regulation is coming into force this week, it’s worth taking the time to reflect on actions that are needed by companies, governments, and all of us to contribute to human rights for all.

Choosing Fairtrade means choosing to support the rights of others. Here are just four of the reasons why.

Spotlighting human rights risks in global trade

The Fairtrade Risk Map shows the human rights challenges faced by farmers and workers growing various products, in different parts of the world. Carefully researched and developed with input from farmers themselves, the online tool explains the most prevalent risks, and how Fairtrade works in different ways to combat them.

Take child labour for example. The Fairtrade Standards prohibit child labour, and in some cases (like our Cocoa Standard) we also require cooperatives to invest in economic opportunities for young people, and companies to contribute to cooperatives’ child labour prevention efforts. When child labour is found, regional Fairtrade producer networks support producer organisations in protecting the affected child or children, working with national agencies and NGOs to remediate the situation, such as getting the child into school. Cooperatives can spend their Fairtrade Premium funds, which are paid on top of the selling price of their cocoa, on school building or renovation, which benefits all children in a community.

We also have a programme that further supports producers’ proposals to strengthen prevention and remediation, such as buying bicycles and helmets so kids who live far from school can attend. And Fairtrade’s West Africa Cocoa Programme provides training for cooperatives and farmers on income diversification, child rights, climate adaptation and more, so farming families don’t have to choose between survival and their children’s future.

Fairtrade takes the same holistic approach in many other areas, including opportunities for women and workers’ rights, to name a few.

Progress toward living incomes and living wages

Many farmers don’t earn enough to cover their costs and meet all their household needs. Fairtrade sets minimum prices for the main products we certify, so that producers have a safety net when global prices fall.

We also set origin-specific Living Income Reference Prices for eight products (including coffee, cocoa, cashews, coconut, mango, oranges, rice, and vanilla) that companies can voluntarily pay to contribute their fair share to producers earning a living income. These are based on a number of factors including the average costs of production in a specific country. Read more about our work on living incomes. We also launched Living Wage Reference Prices for bananas in four countries, so that hired workers on large banana farms earn a wage that supports a decent standard of living.

Supporting environmental rights

The right to a clean and healthy environment is closely intertwined with other human rights. Again, here Fairtrade works through robust Standards, projects, and partnerships. Our Standards include requirements on soil, water, biodiversity, forest protection, among other topics.

Importantly, Fairtrade producer networks also provide training to producer organisations on key topics such as climate adaptation and protection of forest and biodiversity. At the moment, one of the top topics that producer organisations seek our training and support for is the European Union’s upcoming Deforestation Regulation.

We also partner with companies, governments, and producers on projects that improve the environment while at the same time build sustainability. For instance, the Ghana Agroforestry for Impact (GAIM) project is supporting Fairtrade cocoa cooperatives to adopt agroforestry farming methods that mix cocoa with other types of food crops and trees. This improves the soil, mitigates the effects of climate change by providing shade, and means that farmers have another source of income through the sale of other crops.

Resources and services for companies to fulfil their human rights and environmental due diligence obligations

With increasing demand for companies to monitor their supply chains and eliminate human rights violations and environmental harms, Fairtrade is increasingly stepping up as a partner in due diligence – the process in which companies check their supply chains and mitigate problems.

We offer businesses support for understanding due diligence, conducting risk assessments, and making effective plans to prevent and mitigate human rights and environmental risks and challenges in their supply chains.

We have also developed a range of materials for both producers and companies so they can work together as partners in identifying problems and making progress.

The following resources are available, including a newly launched guide for traders on HREDD expectations in the Fairtrade Trader Standard.

• Guide for small and micro companies.
• Guide for small and medium-sized first buyers
• For large farms and other organisations with hired labour: Guide and risk assessment tool.
• For small-scale farmer organisations: Guide and risk assessment tool.

We believe in the power of trade to be a force for good, and we’ll continue to be a partner to producers and companies looking to fulfil this potential. Learn more about what choosing Fairtrade means for human rights by visiting our website, checking out the resources above, and exploring our latest due diligence report.