A fair carpet industry secures good living conditions.

Label STEP was founded in 1995 by the development organisations Berne Declaration, Bread for All, Caritas Switzerland, Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund and Swissaid together with IGOT (Swiss Association for Clean Oriental Carpet Trade). It operates in all major carpet-producing countries: in Afghanistan, India, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Nepal, Pakistan and Turkey.

The fair-trade label STEP is awarded to those carpet dealers, who commit to social responsibility for carpet workers:

• for good working conditions and fair purchasing prices ensuring fair wages
• against abusive child labour
• for independent production inspections
• for environmentally friendly production methods
• for development projects for better living conditions

These fairtrade principles not only apply to individual handmade carpets of a Label STEP licensee but to his entire range of handmade carpets. Carpet dealers are obliged to provide Label STEP with a full account of all their purchases and supply chains, to allow inspections to take place and, whenever necessary, to initiate measures for improvement.

To acheive these goals Label STEP is systematically monitoring the production sites of its licensees and their suppliers, and takes measures to ensure fair conditions.

Learn more about fair trade and Label Step:   www.label-step.org