RSN’s cotton program works with numerous stakeholders to ensure cotton produced with forced labor does not make its way into garment and home goods supply chains.
Our Solutions
RSN is working globally on the multi-stakeholder initiative YESS: Yarn Ethically and Sustainably Sourced to drive slavery out of cotton production by implementing a due diligence verification program with cotton yarn spinners and fabric mills.
RSN is a co-founder of the Cotton Campaign, a coalition advocating with governments, companies, and investors to use their leverage to end continuous and systematic human rights violations in cotton production. Together with the Cotton Campaign, RSN collaborates with a broad network of NGOs, apparel brands and retailers, investors, industry associations, and trade unions seeking to end state-imposed forced labor in Turkmenistan’s cotton sector with a variety of tools and strategies.
To pressure the Uzbek government to stop forcing children and adults to pick cotton in the annual harvest, RSN created the Cotton Pledge and secured commitments from over 300 apparel and retail brands to avoid sourcing Uzbek cotton. After collaborating in a 15-year multi-strategy effort, which resulted in the elimination of systemic forced labor in Uzbekistan, RSN and members of the Cotton Campaign lifted the Cotton Pledge.