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A group of Trócaire volunteers are to create a unique textile to raise awareness of the irresponsible actions of some big businesses.
Trócaire volunteer Teresa Hill from Belfast with Donald Hernandez from Honduras
The “Threads for Corporate Justice” project is aimed at supporting the development agency’s Business and Human Rights campaign which calls for stronger corporate regulation to hold companies to account for human rights violations and environmental harms.
In collaboration with Conflict Textiles, Trócaire is holding a series of three workshops for the 12 volunteers, four from Northern Ireland and eight from the Republic. Each participant will create a panel to reflect elements of the campaign which they feel strongly about and the panels will then be brought together into one large textile. Special consideration is being given to the sustainability of the materials used with participants encouraged to use scrap materials from their homes.
Jeannie McCann, Trócaire’s Advocacy and Campaigns Officer in Northern Ireland, said: “Art can be a powerful tool to help create positive social change. It can shine a light on injustice or help us imagine a better world. This exciting project aims to do just that. The volunteers will collectively thread for corporate justice and stand in solidarity with impacted communities around the world. In time, more people will learn about the campaign by viewing the completed artwork.”
Trócaire is part of a global campaign which calls for stronger corporate regulation. This includes urging Ireland and the UK to introduce a new law to hold Irish/UK companies to account for harming people and the planet, a vital step in ending corporate abuse.
Jeannie said: “There’s lots of scope for our volunteers to be creative and highlight different aspects of the campaign. This includes the shocking human rights violations such as violent evictions and pollution of rivers to the brave activists who struggle for justice despite facing grave danger.
Moreover, volunteers may also highlight the local-global links as many of the common items we use in our daily lives are made as part of global supply chains which could be tainted by these violations. Yet we know there is significant public support for this campaign.”
The textile will be launched at a public event in Belfast in October and will tour around Ireland to encourage action to help ensure people and the planet are prioritised over profit.
Learn more about Trócaire’s corporate accountability campaign by clicking below.
