Center for Business and Human Rights

Detroit is a long way from Dhaka, but the American city’s effort to address blight offer lessons for cleaning up the garment sector in Bangladesh. Released in May, the Detroit’s Blight Removal Task Force’s plan (pdf) offers a practical vision for addressing the more than 78,000 dilapidated buildings that are the primary obstacle to the city’s growth and vitality.

Over the last year, Sarah Labowitz and co-authors have conducted extensive research on the supply chain for garments, including a wide range of interviews and focus groups with buyers, suppliers, workers, and policymakers in Bangladesh, New York, Washington, Berlin, and Geneva.

Last Thursday U.S. Secretary of State Kerry presided over the release of the annual State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. This marks the 37th year that the State Department has published these reports, which now examine almost 200 countries in 7000 pages. Critics of these reports generally focus on three concerns.