French Ambassador-at-Large for human rights Francois Zimeray yesterday said his country supported the idea that the price of readymade garments made in Bangladesh should go up to improve labour conditions here.
"Definitely, the respect of dignity has a cost and has a price and this cost has to be paid by consumers. Price [of a product] should include the price of dignity. And this price has to be paid," he said at a press briefing.
Zimeray arrived in Dhaka on Monday, on a two-day trip in the backdrop of the collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar on April 24, which killed 1,129 people.
Terming Bangladesh a brand itself, the French official said when people buy a product, they buy a brand.
"What I told the authorities, that you send a strong message that the lessons of this tragedy have been learnt," he said.
About solutions for improving labour rights, Zimeray said it should be a homegrown one. "Solutions will come from here. I will not bring solutions from abroad," he said.
"But our part as consumers, as buyers, as clients, our part is also to ask the brands to check more carefully and to take part in the responsibility."
The brands should be held more accountable, he said.
Commenting on the Rana Plaza tragedy, he said the victims had suffered from "the collapse of law, the collapse of respect, the collapse of regulation, the collapse of enforcement, the collapse of justice."
Zimeray, also a lawyer, said when a tragedy happens for the first time, it is ignorance; the second time it is indifference; but the third time it is complicity.
"There should be an end to this era of indifference, era of ignorance, era of complicity, which I call the fashion cynicism."
On the disappearance of people, especially political figures, he said these were terrible crimes – "crime against humanity."
Zimeray said: "This is also a collapse of law. I condemn all forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings are simply against human rights."
Thursday, June 04, 2026
