Clothing and footwear brands and retailers have dramatically increased their disclosure of information about their supply chains in the past three years. Dozens of brands and retailers are publicly disclosing information about their supplier factories. This has become a widely accepted step toward better identifying and addressing labor abuses in garment supply chains.

Transparency is not a panacea for labor rights abuses but is critical for a business that describes itself as ethical and sustainable. Supplier transparency is a powerful tool that promotes corporate accountability for garment workers’ rights in global supply chains. It is proof that a company knows where its products are made and also allows workers and labor and human rights advocates to alert the company to rights abuses in supplier factories. Information about brands’ supplier factories can help workers gain faster access to redress for human rights abuses.

The US-based Fair Labor Association has taken significant steps to drive supply chain transparency among members. The Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textiles has not made supply chain transparency of individual members a condition of membership but requires its members to disclose information about their supplier factories. The United Kingdom Ethical Trading Initiative and the Fair Wear Foundation have taken incremental steps to improve supply chain transparency of their members.