Background

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Across Southeast Asia, migrant and informal workers in high-risk sectors like fisheries, nickel mining, and textile recycling face systemic exclusion from due diligence processes. Despite regional policy frameworks, persistent gaps remain between regulations and workers' lived realities—particularly for women and cross-border migrants who encounter compounded risks due to precarious legal status and gendered labor dynamics. This session directly addresses this gap by centering the lived realities and organizing efforts of workers and their representatives from across Southeast Asia. It builds on concrete cases—from the fight for free and mandatory Wi-Fi access on distant water fishing vessels to the struggles of informal waste recyclers and nickel workers—to explore how meaningful participation, access to remedy, and rights-based transitions can be operationalized in practice, not just in principle.

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Key Objectives

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• To elevate grassroots perspectives and worker-led evidence on structural barriers to effective due diligence and remedy in Southeast Asian supply chains.

• To identify and promote actionable strategies—such as worker-led audit teams and gender-responsive grievance mechanisms—that can authentically embed worker participation into corporate and state HRDD practices.

• To foster cross-sectoral collaboration and commitment among businesses, governments, and civil society to dismantle systemic exclusion and implement inclusive, rights-holder-led solutions.

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Guiding Questions

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• How can companies and regulators move beyond tokenistic consultation to ensure workers, especially migrants and women in informal sectors, are co-designers and leaders of due diligence and remediation processes?

• What are the most effective grassroots models for monitoring rights abuses and securing remedy in opaque and complex supply chains (e.g., fishing, nickel, textiles), and how can they be scaled?

• What specific policy reforms and corporate practices are needed to overcome the legal, economic, and gendered barriers that prevent millions of workers in Asia from accessing justice and recognition?

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Format

• This session is designed as ae interactive workshop to move beyond traditional panel presentations. It will begin with short, powerful case presentations from worker representatives and supporting organizations to set the stage. The majority of the session will then be dedicated to facilitated small-group discussions, where participants will delve into specific challenges and co-create recommendations targeted at different actors (governments, companies, international organizations). The session will conclude with a plenary sharing of key insights and a collective synthesis of actionable next steps. The format ensures high engagement, practical output, and centers the dialogue on solution-building.

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Session Partners