Ep. 27: Ensuring Effective Access to Remedy through Grievance Mechanisms

In this new podcast episode, we discuss how grievance mechanisms can contribute to ensuring effective access to remedy in case of adverse human rights impact linked to corporate activities. More specifically, we discuss Fair Wear Foundation’s grievance mechanisms, a multi-stakeholder organisation of trade union, industry, and NGO constituencies that advances human rights in the garment sector through effective due diligence. This episode counts with the participation of Liselotte Goemans, the Grievance Mechanism Coordinator at the Fair Wear Foundation, which includes developing the strategic directions of the grievance mechanism and ensuring its quality and consistency in implementation. She also works on industry outreach, collaboration and alignment related to access to remedy. Liselotte has a background in cultural anthropology.
Please note that at several points, Liselotte Goemans mentions "our local team and the auditors who are part of this". A correction here: Fair Wear is moving away from conducting audits and towards doing assessments, which means the auditors are now called assessors.
At 19:23, Liselotte Goemans talked about "keeping our fingers crossed for the CSDDD", and we are now happy that it has been adopted!
At 23:15, Liselotte Goemans states that the grievance mechanism was first rolled out in 2009, which should be corrected to 2004.
The episode was conducted by our Research Assistant, Maria Ana Lourenço.