let us maintain the duty of vigilance

Everyone remembers the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013, a building in Bangladesh which housed textile manufacturing workshops. It cost the lives of more than a thousand people and revealed the disgraceful conditions in which clothing from various brands distributed in Europe was manufactured there.

Following this disaster, the law on the duty of vigilance was passed in 2017, to combat potential duplicity by companies. In France, everyone is forced to comply with environmental and social standards.

But, in delocalized production areas, some of them reveal their true profile: they do not hesitate to take advantage of more flexible legislation to produce at lower cost, sometimes at the risk of employees and the protection of nature.

The 2017 law therefore aims to ensure that, from one end of the production chain to the other, the fundamental rights of people are respected, as well as the environment.

Hard-won and involving the monitoring of a complex battery of standards, the duty of vigilance is today threatened: on November 13, the European Parliament will have to decide on a simplification of all the legislation that weighs on multinationals, with a view to facilitating their activity.

The left-wing Christian deputy Dominique Potier, one of the architects of the 2017 law, is strongly opposed to the project, as are many organizations.

Behind the political standoff, a struggle of another scope is being played out. Two visions of global activity clash: one wishes to establish respect for people and the Earth as absolute, even if this has an impact on the economy and proves restrictive to put in place; the other favors short-term enrichment of companies rather than long-term development of theirs and that of surrounding societies.

Everyone can exercise their consumer vigilance here to contribute, on their own scale, to the economic model that will benefit as many people as possible.