The French ambassador at large on human rights, François Zimeray, on Tuesday said he would ask the European buyers of Bangladeshi apparels to increase their
prices so that rights of the workers could be ensured.
Zimeray made the comment while briefing newsmen about his two-day tour of Bangladesh in the aftermath of the deadliest building collapse in the country’s history of apparel industry that took more than 1100 lives.
‘If the buyers do not pay more prices, the rights of the workers will not be ensured. Returning back home, I would ask the buyers to pay more prices,’ he said at the briefing at Alliance Française, Dhaka.
‘The big brands have more responsibilities. They should be more accountable… The brands whose labels were found at Rana Plaza should also take responsibilities.
‘The Rana Plaza catastrophe is not only just a building collapse rather collapse of law, respect and justice,’ he said.
Zimeray said he was not in favour of boycotting Bangladeshi produces rather put stress on consumers’ awareness about their responsibilities. He said Europe was suffering from a crisis of consumer behaviour and was of the opinion that there should be a shift in social responsibilities from corporate social responsibility to consumers’ social responsibility and they should be more sensitive to the rights of the workers.
Asked about his observations to prevent recurrence of Rana Plaza happenings, Zimeray said it should be worked out by Bangladesh and nothing from outside would yield any result.
The responsibility of solving the problems in apparel sector is not only lies on the private sector, but also the state and consumers also have some responsibility, he said.
He also laid stress on implementation of the treaties like ILO conventions and others where Bangladesh is a signatory. ‘These should not exist in papers only,’ he said.
Branding Rana Plaza tragedy similar to the accident at Union Carbide factory in Bhopal of India, Zimeray said France was concerned at the Savar catastrophe and he found it high time to visit Bangladesh right this moment for the sake of human rights though the tour was scheduled much earlier.
About enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings, Zimeray said a single such incident was not tolerable and such incident indicated collapse of law. He said it was not only a crisis of politics or economy, but also a crisis of values.
About the war crimes tribunal, he said France was always against environment of impunity to prevent repetition of such mass crimes but the trial procedure should uphold the rights of the accused people.
-With New Age input
