Joint paper on Legislating for Impact

In a joint paper, Fair Trade Advocacy Office, Rainforest Alliance and Solidaridad call on the European Commission to ensure that their legislation on Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) is inclusive of the interests of smallholder farmers in various regions worldwide. The EU should also recognize that poverty is an underlying cause of many of the human rights abuses and negative environmental impacts in global value chains that the HREDD legislation aims to tackle. This paper is co-signed by a variety of international civil society organizations.

The paper includes three key recommendations:

• Focus on living incomes, living wages and responsible purchasing practices to reduce poverty among smallholder farmers.
• Encourage lasting trade relationships and continuous improvement in global value chains. 
• Require the engagement and active collaboration of rightsholders in all the stages of the human rights and environmental due diligence processes.