Over the past thirty years globalisation and trade liberalisation has resulted in labour outsourcing in the textile industry from the Global North to the Global South. Multinational corporations have been establishing operations in countries with laxer labour laws and a weaker rule of law. This has in turn led to terrible working conditions for women working in these factories: abuse from their employers to the withholding of salaries and the lack of proper safety regulations. With so many actors being involved on the local and international levels, it is clear that international cooperation is crucial to protect these women from further exploitation.

The International Labour Organization will explore the role of globalisation and trade liberalisation in labour exploitation, the informal economy and precariousness as a catalyst for these issues, the overrepresentation of women in the textile industry, safety conditions in infrastructure, and the rule of law and labour laws in the Global South, among many other topics.