"From law to action: New centre to strengthen workers’ rights through human rights due diligence laws", 19 March 2025

On 20 March 2025, global trade unions and representatives of the German government will formally announce the creation of the Human Rights Due Diligence Competence Centre, set to open later this year. The Centre will support trade unions in leveraging national and EU legislation – like the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains and EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) – to secure workers’ rights across global value chains and corporate operations. UNI Global Union (UNI) and IndustriALL Global Union are working together with project partners in Germany, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and German union confederation the DGB. Initial funding has been provided by the Initiative for Global Solidarity, a GIZ programme supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)...

The Centre’s steering committee, comprised of UNI, IndustriALL and DGB, will focus on three key objectives:

1. Build capacity for trade unions in countries with human rights due diligence laws – starting with Germany – and across global supply chains, enabling them to use corporate due diligence obligations more effectively in defending workers’ rights.

2. Support strategic interventions using HRDD to safeguard workers’ rights and prevent violations in high priority value chains.

3. Advocate for effective human rights due diligence implementation by companies and policy makers.

...The Competence Centre will be registered as a non-profit foundation in the Netherlands and will operate virtually without a physical office location. It will be officially launched in the fourth quarter of 2025...