The Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) Network is proud to share today’s announcement that a legally-binding WSR agreement has been signed to address long-standing issues of sexual harassment and gender-based violence in the Lesotho-based suppliers of several major apparel brands.

This development represents a tremendous breakthrough for Lesotho garment workers, who have been pursuing a worker-driven approach to stop these abuses. It also represents a significant new expansion of the WSR model, which is now operative on three continents and is quickly winning recognition as the only proven effective approach for protecting workers’ fundamental human rights in global supply chains after decades of failed, corporate-led social responsibility efforts.

In the face of overwhelming odds, workers at the Nien Hsing Textile Co. in Lesotho came together to demand respect and justice in the workplace, and an end to a pervasive environment of gender-based violence. Following an investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), workers, together with labor unions, women’s rights organizations, and NGOs, drafted and negotiated an agreement to remedy and prevent such abuses, and to fundamentally shift the balance of power in their workplace...