All businesses have a “direct responsibility” to respect the rights of workers in their global supply chains, an audience at the UN General Assembly was told last week, with companies urged to remedy violations.
The meeting highlighted that more than 40m people globally are subjected to modern forms of slavery, 71% of them women. Gender inequality and discrimination are the “primary drivers,” Urmila Bhoola, a human rights lawyer said. Modern slavery covers any form of forced human exploitation for labour or service such as human trafficking and forced labour.
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At the end of September, governments from the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand committed to a set of four principles which they said would act as steps to “eliminate slavery from economies.”
The ‘Principles To Guide Government Action To Combat Human Trafficking in Global Supply Chains’ acts as a guide for governments to take effective action to prevent and eradicate supply chain modern slavery.
- Governments should analyse, develop, and implement measures to identify, prevent and reduce the risk of human trafficking in their own procurement practices. They can also provide tools and incentives that require procurement officers and contractors to assess the nature and extent of potential exposure to human trafficking in their supply chains; and take targeted action to identify, prevent, mitigate and remedy the issue.
- Governments should encourage the private sector to address and prevent human trafficking in supply chains by setting clear expectations on their responsibility to conduct appropriate due diligence in their supply chains to identify, prevent, and mitigate human trafficking.
- Governments should advance responsible recruitment policies and practices by implementing policies and supporting initiatives such as the ‘Employer Pays Principle.’
- Governments should also make reasonable efforts to share information and work with other governments to align existing and proposed laws, regulations and policies to combat human trafficking in global supply chains.
The British Government introduced the UK Modern Slavery Act in 2015, requiring firms to provide information on what steps they have taken to address slavery and trafficking within their business and supply chains. Earlier this month it said it would start naming and shaming those businesses that fail to disclose how they protect workers in their supply chain from modern slavery.

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By GlobalData