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One of the young workers at the Dhaka port carries chain and spanners, Dhaka port, Bangladesh. Copyright: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Social standards: decent work for all

Background: minimum social standards are human rights

It is the task of the governments and authorities in a country to establish fair social and labour law conditions and to ensure compliance with them. Yet the global competition for markets and investors is tough. To gain a short-term competitive edge some developing countries flout social standards, which means violating workers' basic rights.


Decent terms and conditions of employment for all

As the German government understands it, core labour standards are an important element of social human rights. All countries - and all busi­nes­ses - must be measured against the degree to which they observe these standards. Social standards form the foun­da­tion of a social­ly responsible eco­no­mic pro­cess. The aim of German develop­ment policy is to help promote economic growth and to help esta­blish decent working and living conditions in partner countries - since both serve poverty reduction.


Promoting corporate social responsibility

The International Labour Organization (ILO) cannot impose sanctions when social standards are not maintained. That is why private ini­tia­tives such as voluntary codes of conduct and quality labels have an important role to play when it comes to implementing core labour standards worldwide. There are now many initiatives in which the private sector, NGOs and trade unions are working together to introduce social standards (multi-stakeholder initiatives).


Further information

The following list contains links to a selection of documents and websites with further information on social standards.



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