The Transnational Garment Industry in South and South-East Asia: a Focus on Labor Rights

In the last few decades, labor-intensive industries such as garment production have increasingly been relocated from developed countries to developing countries with lower labor costs, such as China, the Philippines and Indonesia (Dicken 1998, pp.290–1). In many of these developing countries, human rights standards are lower, and garment firms violate some of the key internationally accepted human rights. This chapter examines the impact of transnational garment firms on human rights in South and South-East Asia by focusing on labor rights.