Xertifix
| XertifiX | |
|---|---|
|
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| purpose | Label for better working conditions and environmental protection in the Asian natural stone sector |
| Chair: | 1st chair: Ingrid Sehrbrock ; 2nd chairman: Ulrich Meinecke |
| Executive Director: | Walter Schmidt |
| Establishment date: | 2005 |
| Seat : | Hanover, Germany |
| Website: | www.xertifix.de |
The Xertifix association (official spelling: XertifiX ) is a non-governmental organization that advocates better working conditions and environmental protection in the Asian natural stone sector. The seal of quality of the same name distinguishes natural stones from India, China or Vietnam that have been produced under working conditions that meet the XertifiX standards.
seal of approval
Paving stones, tombstones and other stone products are sometimes produced under problematic working conditions and without adequate environmental protection and are imported to Europe at low prices.
The association advocates a standard for global trade in the natural stone industry . XertifiX checks this regularly factories and quarries in India, China and Vietnam, to ensure that standard criteria are met: The standard includes the ILO - core labor agreements , including the prohibition of child labor and slavery, to better protect the health and safety of adult workers, fair Wages and working hours, environmental protection and legality. If the requirements are met, XertifiX issues certificates for the stones.
The association's own seal of approval is intended to give the end consumer the assurance that the imported natural stones meet recognized social and ecological standards in terms of mining and processing. In particular, care is taken that the stones are produced without exploitative child and slave labor.
Emergence
The association was founded in 2005 with the participation of Misereor . Well-known founding members of the association include Peter Weiß (Member of the Bundestag), Klaus-Maria Brandauer (actor), Otto Tausig (actor) and Thilo Hoppe (Member of the Bundestag Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development) and Norbert Blüm , who has been September 2011 was the club's chairman and has acted as patron ever since.
Injunctions against XertifiX
Some stone producers and natural stone importers reject reports of child labor as false. They filed several lawsuits against the organization XertifiX and the city administration of Munich . There were also lawsuits against municipalities that only allow tombstones in their cemetery regulations that were made without child labor.
Use of stones from problematic working conditions in Germany
In Germany, too, stones that were produced under problematic working conditions for adults or even with child labor are often used, often also in public-sector projects. Those responsible are often ignorant of the exact origin of the stones or are satisfied with bogus certificates that the quarry owners issue themselves.
Other certificates
Another certificate that guarantees a standard for global trade in the natural stone industry is Fair Stone . Goodweave and Fairtrade International define similar social standards in other product groups .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Who we are , on the Xertifix website, accessed March 31, 2016
- ^ Gravestone dispute : lawsuit against Norbert Blüm and Xertifix article in the Badische Zeitung from June 3, 2009.
- ↑ Rest in Peace? - Gravestones from child labor Video from June 24, 2009 in the political magazine Kontrovers des Bayerischen Fernssehen, page no longer available , search in web archives: text version (PDF) .
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: At the expense of the poorest - cobblestones from child labor Report by the political magazine Controvers of the Bavarian TV.
Web links
- Xertifix website
- Every seventh child worldwide forced to work Video from RTL Aktuell about the work of Xertifix in India