SPD Field Report My name is Shikha Sethia and I was one of the recipients of the Field Research Support Fund from SPD in 2015/16. My research is on the dynamics of coalition building between legal and non-­‐legal actors within anti-­‐sweatshop coalitions. I focused on the legal cases filed for labour violations in South Asia, against discount retailers based in Europe. There have been three such cases since 2010 – the first one, in 2010, was filed as a consumer protection complaint against Lidl, a retailer from Germany, when routine labour violations were discovered at its supplier factories in Bangladesh. In 2014, another case was filed against the French retailer, Auchan, after it was connected to the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh in 2013. The most recent case was filed in 2015 against KiK, a discount retailer in Germany, after the Baldia factory fire in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2012, when 256 workers were burnt alive, as a result of inadequate building safety measures. For my in-­‐depth analysis, I focused primarily on the KiK case. To meet with the actors involved in the broader campaign around this case, and therefore understand how coalitions form and what they are motivated by, I travelled repeatedly to Amsterdam for meetings with the Clean Clothes Campaign and to Brussels to meet the trade unionist from IndustryAll, who was involved in the negotiations. EU Human Rights in Business Conference on Access to Remedy (Brussels) As I had no prior training in law, which was a critical aspect of my research, I spoke to multiple lawyers in the course of the summer, including lawyers that were involved in filing all of the three cases against the European corporations. I was also able to attend the EU Human Rights in Business group’s event on Access to Remedy for corporate-­‐related human rights violations in third countries, which took place in Brussels on 8 September 2016. At the event I was able to speak to lawyers and academics in the legal field, who added more perspective and depth to my findings. In addition, I met with various civil society organisations that work on corporate accountability in Utrecht, Amsterdam and Brussels. They provided me with a different perspective on how legal frameworks also work to regulate civil society and under what conditions such coalitions can serve the interests of those whose rights have been violated. In the course of my research, I became associated with the Global Campaign to Reclaim People’s Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity, which is based out of the Transnational Institute, in Amsterdam. I had the privilege to accompany them to the 2nd session of the “Open-­‐ended Intergovernmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights” (OIGWG) at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, from 22-­‐28 October 2016. There, I was able to attend many of the sessions of the OIGWG, giving me insight into State perspectives on corporate-­‐related human rights abuses and also to observe how civil society groups from different organisations, interests and geographies interpreted the process for a binding treaty to regulate the behavior of Transnational Corporations and other business enterprises. Global Campaign to Reclaim People’s Sovereignty, Dismantle Corporate Power and Stop Impunity (Geneva) Open-­‐ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (Geneva) My research benefited immensely from the interviews that I could conduct and the events that I was able to attend, as a result of funding from the SPD programme, and I am very grateful for receiving the support.