Worker voice initiatives can help combat modern slavery in supply chains
Research shows worker-driven approaches are effective in the fight against supply chain forced labour, USAID launches an anti-trafficking partnership with The Asia Foundation, and UNHCR highlights a lack of protection for African migrants traveling northwards.
A new research paper from Justice and Care has found that Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) initiatives represent a promising way in which to fight modern slavery in supply chains – particularly when they include legally binding contracts, formal complaint mechanisms, and regular audits by independent monitoring bodies. Worker voice approaches offer, at least in principle, a cost effective and scalable way for lead firms to reach workers, and a mechanism for anonymously raising concerns and disclosing sensitive information, according to Modern Slavery in Global Supply Chains: The state of evidence for key government and private approaches. However, unless such initiatives are designed to address the inherent power imbalances that prevail in supply chains, their effectiveness could be undermined.
The paper found that government-led approaches also show promise but require greater expansion and enforcement – while disclosure legislation has contributed to increased transparency and greater awareness of modern slavery in supply networks, its effectiveness in changing the behaviour of firms and bolstering labour conditions has been quite limited. By contrast, evidence suggests that mandatory human rights due diligence (mHRDD) legislation has the power to catalyze comprehensive and effective change in corporate practices – the costs of adopting due diligence procedures in businesses’ daily operations are relatively small while the benefits, such as minimizing the disruption of supply chains, are potentially high, especially if government-led strategies create a level playing field in which firms which engage in exploitative labour practices face civil liability.
Meanwhile standard voluntary corporate responsibility tools, such as social audits and ethical certification, were found, by themselves, to be incapable of tackling modern slavery in supply networks. Responsible purchasing practices, also a voluntary mechanism, are also likely to be ineffective in improving working conditions as they depend entirely on lead firms’ commitment to such improvements and on their reputational concerns. Nonetheless, recent legislative initiatives, such as the EU’s 2019 Directive on Unfair Trading Practices and the UK’s Agriculture Act 2020, show that governments are increasingly attempting to encourage the adoption of responsible purchasing practices – or at least to ban unfair practices – in supply chains.
The report concludes that, in responding to the inherent human rights challenges associated with a dynamic globalized economy, an approach that calls on governments, businesses, workers, consumers and investors to play their part in a mutually reinforcing way is needed. Justice and Care’s analysis suggests that the most effective strategy to combat modern slavery in supply chains would require governments to take a leading role in this fight with a plan that would involve a combination of: an internationally harmonized legislative framework imposing mandatory due diligence on firms, accompanied by the imposition of legal liability on companies and company directors who fail to prevent these abuses; the engagement of workers and trade unions in designing and monitoring reporting and redress mechanisms; the application of such a legislative framework to public procurement and finance; and the transparent and coordinated imposition of import bans that not only prevent goods from entering particular markets but also target specific companies and prioritize the remediation of victims.
These government policies should be accompanied by sector-specific industry guidelines jointly developed by government agencies, firms, industry experts and worker organizations aimed at allowing businesses to clearly understand what modern slavery typically “looks like” in their area of activity so they can better identify, prevent and/or address human rights risk in their particular operational context, together with guidance on how government-led approaches should be practically implemented in such a context.
Here’s a round-up of other noteworthy news and initiatives:
Through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. government has launched a five-year partnership with The Asia Foundation (TAF) worth US$10 million. The purpose of the partnership is to implement counter-trafficking in persons interventions in Fiji, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.
Protection services are severely lacking for refugees and migrants, including survivors of human trafficking, who make perilous journeys from the Sahel and Horn of Africa towards North Africa and Europe, according to a new UNHCR report. The study highlights the gaps in available protection services, notably in shelter; access to justice; identification of survivors; and the provision of responses to gender-based violence, trafficking, and for unaccompanied and separated children, and covers Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Somalia, and Sudan.
This blog post by FLEX explores the concerns set out in the recent U.S. Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report about the UK’s anti-trafficking protection and support system, and calls on the UK government to implement the report’s recommendations to address its unclear and inadequate policies.
A team of U.S. federal investigators from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) have trained German law enforcement counterparts on the latest investigative techniques that recognize indicators and trace financial transactions linked to human trafficking.
A new video based on the work of Child Helpline Cambodia explains the bride trafficking market and the dynamics surrounding the escape and return of Cambodian women and girls.
This recording of a workshop organized by the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre explores the building of equitable partnerships between academics and NGOs in modern slavery research, and looks at ways in which to overcome challenges such as the potential power imbalance between partners, the different ways in which organizations work, and having different systems and financial operations in place, among other issues.
An upcoming webinar on 8 September will explore the intersections between “Human Trafficking and Missing or Murdered Indigenous People”, and feature American Indian and Alaska Native panelists as they offer insight into the possible intersection between MMIP and human trafficking and share actionable steps for involving the community.
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