Dita Sari

Dita Sari, "president of the Indonesian People’s Democratic Party (PRD), and a leader of the militant Indonesian National Front for Workers’ Struggle (FNPBI) union federation".

In 1999 "Amnesty International welcomed todays release of Dita Indah Sari, a labour rights organizer connected to the Peoples Democratic Party (Partai Rakyat Demokratic - PRD) who was serving a five year sentence for her peaceful activities defending workers rights. Her release follows sustained campaigning by international human rights groups, trade unions, womens rights groups and others."

In 2002 Dita rejected the opportunity to receive the Reebok Human Rights Award. Although she did not give the speech she had planned to give the following rejection speech at the award ceremony: "I have taken this award into a very deep consideration. We finally decide not to accept this.... In Indonesia, there are five Reebok companies; 80% of the workers are women. All companies are subcontracted, often by South Korean companies.... Since the workers can only get around $1.50 a day, they then have to live in a slum area, surrounded by poor and unhealthy conditions, especially for their children. At the same time, Reebok collected millions of dollars of profit every year, directly contributed by these workers. The low pay and exploitation of the workers of Indonesia, Mexico and Vietnam are the main reasons why we will not accept this award."


 * Director, Focus on the Global South